Credit: Bobcat Arts
Greetings, comrades. I am your host Bobcat here in the perpetually under renovations art minds. And please forgive any sniffling and sneezing and shortness of breath. It's spring. My allergies are killing me and my asthma is not helping. But I wanted to talk to you today about this. This is my Maryland wear and carry permit. Maryland does not have a concealed carry permit or an open carry thing to carry any firearm anywhere off of your own property. You need that permit and that allows me to carry this my Ruger security, non-comp out in the great beyond. And just as a side note, if you are going to carry, I do recommend you carry concealed. You might not have known that I was even wearing this until I showed you versus it being just out and about and freaks out the normies. So yes, you have the right to carry it.
Right to defend yourself
Yes, you have the right to defend yourself and own one, but consider your audience when you're out there and you might not think that their feelings matter, but they vote and they can call the police if they're nervous and have no idea who you are, they can mean well but still set you up for a bad day. So keep it under wraps. But I wanted to make this video for two reasons. One, because I literally just got this permit just a few days ago, 60 days to the day after I applied. And I wanted to walk you through the process of it, what I did, where I went, and two, how much all of this cost. What is the cost of this in the grand scheme of things? What is the cost of ownership, responsible ownership and all that jazz. So here we go. So the process, I went to Cindy's Hotshots in Glen Burnie, Maryland, fantastic facility.
How to apply
How to apply forI'm not affiliated with them in any way. I'm not sponsored. None of that. Signed up in the classes through the website. I paid a little extra for their wear and carry application, excuse me, their wear and carry application assistance. So go to the class, you sit there and you learn about when and where and why and how to carry and what not to do. And then on day two you go to the range and actually qualify. You take a test and you shoot at varying distances and a limited amount of time to kind of add a stress to it. And you have to get I think 19 out of the 25 shots on target. And I got 24 out of 25. And I'm not saying that to toot my own horn, I was actually really nervous during the test.
Books Provided
It is time and you can't and pick up and fire until they tell you to and you get two shots or maybe four shots at a time. I forget. And you can't mess it up. And so that made me nervous. And so I was actually shaking a little bit, which surprised me in the safest place in the world. But that's the way it is. And in the class you also, they give you a copy of this book, conceal Concealed Carry and Home Defense Fundamentals second edition. And it's actually nicely illustrated. Basically the same thing you learn in the class but for your reference and sharing with others later. It's actually a really good read. And you might see this logo. This is the US Concealed Carry Association logo, the range, and the instructors partner with SCCA to organize and structure the course and train the trainers as it were.
Paperwork
And I'll go into a little bit about that later. But that's why you might see this U-S-C-C-A logo on it. I don't have a membership with them. Again, I'll talk about that in a minute. But go to the class, pass the shooting test and then they help you if you've paid for it, they help you fill out the application with the state of Maryland. They do it for you. Basically you fill out some paperwork, paper paperwork, and they take your ugly mugshot and then a very friendly person does your fingerprints and then fills out the paperwork with the state online. You can absolutely do it yourself. I just opted to pay them to do it. I wanted it done right the first time and I didn't want to not check a box or check the wrong box and get my permit denied. So I was like, you know what?
Application Submitted
I'm going to let you handle all that. And frankly, I think for me, I'm usually a chief bastard, but I've spent just a little extra to get it done right the first time. And sometimes that's good policy. Did this end and then just waited. Submitted the, took the class on February 4th. Today is April 8th or ninth. Submitted the class February 4th, a week, two weeks later and submitted the application that same day. Two weeks later I got an email from the state police saying your application was received. Dunno why it took two weeks to say that. A couple weeks later got another email saying your application has moved from received to accepted. A couple weeks, maybe a month after that. Yeah, a couple weeks later got another email saying your application has been assigned to an investigator. And I guess that's the person who ran the background, check on the fingerprints, ran the background check on my criminal profile, separate from the fingerprints somehow. Maybe a national profile. I don't know. I don't know.
Questions Asked
Also on the application, are you a criminal? Are you sane, are you sober? Those kind of questions. You have also three references you're supposed to give that will vouch for your character. Three people not related to you. I did not know that going in. I kind of made some up on the spot. People I know and trust and love, I checked in with them. They were never called no one from the process contacted them. So I don't know. But yeah, the three references. And then maybe a couple of days ago I didn't hear anything checked on the state police website and I saw that my status had been changed to approved, but I still didn't have the physical permit. And you need to carry this with you every time you carry this with you again except on your property. So even though I was approved until I got this, I couldn't wear this out of the house.
Review of class
And then finally it showed up in the mail 60 days to the day after taking the class. I want to thank the people at Cindy's because, excuse me, it was a real straightforward process. The instructors were good, the facility is great. I had a great time, I learned a lot. Stuff I didn't consider and I really recommend it. So if you're interested, again, just the state of Maryland, if you are interested in your wear and carry permit and you're in the DC Baltimore area, I had a great experience at Cindy's, so you should give them a thought. So part two, what does it cost to own a firearm? To have one of these on your belt, on your person responsibly out in the world, what's that cost like my motorcycle, true cost of ownership. What's a cost of ownership for that? Well first you'll need the pistol. This was $400. Just this if you want extra magazines, they are from Shop Ruger website. They are like $45 a piece or I think it was $75 for a two pack, which is what I bought. I bought a couple of two packs.
Must must must have a holster
You must must must have a holster. This is a we the people basic cutex holster with a little kind of belt claw to kind of keep it pressed against you and kind of reduce the printing on you. This was we the people made in America, not a bad holster. This was about $75 you'll need. I recommend a gun belt. This belt, I wish I brought a section with me. This belt is reinforced. This is pretty stiff and pretty rigid so that the weight of the pistol doesn't flex the belt and it keeps the holster position. When you're drawing or stashing your pistol keeps the holster from flopping around. And the reason I went with the core essentials belt was because the instructor had one and they were like, Hey, you're going to get a holster. They didn't recommend we the people holsters. I just wanted one that was made in the US And for me as a tradesman, when someone in that field says, this is my personal thing, I like it because tried a bunch and this is the best one for me. I tend to trust that recommendation. So yeah, core essentials belt, another $75 or another $60. And I have the notes that I took just to try and sum up all these prices. But yeah, so pistol magazines, holster, belt targets at the range, five bucks. Don't sweat that. I mean you could shoot at paper plates if you really wanted to.
Maryland HQL class
Sessions at the range, it's kind of like a bowling alley. You pay every time you go or you pay for a membership. I pay about 30 bucks MAs menos every time I go, I'm going to get a membership instead. It's cheaper and I can go as often as I want. The Maryland HQL class. If you to purchase a pistol in Maryland, you need a handgun qualification license just to purchase it, not let alone carry it out. You can skip the HQL class if you take the wear and carry class. I didn't know that at the time. So save you 175 bucks if you want to do that. At Cindy's there. Wear and carry. Day one was $200. Their wear and carry. Day two was $150. That may seem like a lot. And I had a great time. I learned a lot. I would do everything again and pay everything again.
Defensive ammo
Permit help with $60, you're going to need ammunition. I've got, I feel like Scrooge McDuck with this bucket of 1000 rounds of full metal jacket, basic copper, nine millimeter round nose was $287. But that's just to train, that's just to punch nice holes at a range. For defensive purposes, I really recommend defensive ammo. This is a copper jacketed hollow point and this will actually expand and transfer that energy to the target, whereas these being round and full jacket will generally just kind of punch through the target and into something behind it before they stop. So really recommend the defensive rounds. I think if you're in the state of New Jersey, you can't buy those. Those are illegal, these hollow points. So check your laws, your mileage may vary wherever you go, but you may be stuck with these full metal jacket round nose.
Dry fire drills at home
You'reOnly get so much training standing in your lane, practicing this and that. So you're going to be doing your dry fire drills at home, which is great, but you should really get continuing training. You should really get continuing professional guidance on how to use this the best and most effectively if God forbid, you ever actually need to. And that can be a couple of hundred dollars just for the instructions. And then you'll need ammunition and you'll need targets and all of that. So that's an additional cost. You heard me talk about the US CCA, the US concealed carry association. There are various, and I haven't looked into all of them by any stretch, I've only looked into a couple so far. There are insurance shooter's, insurance wear and carry insurance, something like that. In the event invert of firearms related emergency. They will connect you with a lawyer that specializes in this kind of stuff to help keep you out of jail if that's where you don't belong. That sort of thing can help pay for your legal defense, can help pay for lost wages, that kind of stuff. They're all different. Please read the fine print. I'm not endorsing any one group or another because I don't have it yet. I haven't bought that yet, but that could be another couple hundred bucks per year. Ongoing costs of gun ownership. But how much are you worth? How much is your family worth? How much is the safety of your community worth?
Legal wear and carry owner
Some might say we're priceless. How much is your freedom worth? Hard to put a number on that. So anyway, that's the process. I am now a legal wear and carry owner. And again, I had a great experience at Cindy's. If you are outside of the DC Baltimore corridor, there may be other less expensive and even better courses for you. But again, that's what I had. So thanks for hanging out with me. Kind of a rambling video. A little wheezy because of all the flowers, beautiful of flowers that hate me. So I hope you're safe and well fed wherever you are. I wish you more practice your dry fire drills. Those are free and that will help you build up the muscle memory that you will need when you're too scared to think in times of crisis. So thanks for taking along and hanging out with me and I'll see you soon. Good luck.