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Some time ago I was having a little work done on my car, and while waiting I used the restroom. Right next to the toilet was a little recessed shelf, and it seemed easiest to just remove my IWB holster (with the gun in it as usual) and set it there on the shelf.

Well, from my subject line you know what happened next. After finishing I forgot about my gun and just went back out into the waiting area. A few minutes later I was chatting with the manager who was talking about a new location they had opened up. When she described the location I recognized it as being near a shooting range that I frequent. That made me think about my weapon, at which point I subtly felt for it at its usual position, noticed it was not there, realized what I had done, and had a momentary panic. Luckily, the shop was not that busy, and there were no other customers to use the restroom. So I let the manager finish her thought, and then simply said, "Excuse me for just a minute," and stepped back into the restroom to retrieve my gun.

In the end, there was no harm done. But I shudder to think what would have happened if someone had gone in there before I realized my mistake. And what if we had not had the conversation that made me think about the range, which made me remember my gun? I was lucky this time. Lesson learned -- before leaving a public restroom, double- and triple-check that everything is where it's supposed to be!

unusual very 1st post..... but true, don't leave your gun in the bathroom

Did you have to sit down again for a little bit? I have not done this before and hope I never do. At least it turned out okay for you.

Teamless wrote:unusual very 1st post..... but true, don't leave your gun in the bathroom

Roger that. Also, don't leave it on the hood of your car, in your neighbor's mailbox, or in the Bible rack on the back of the church pew in front of you.

No, I've never left my gun in any of those places. I'm merely restating the obvious since that's what seems to be called for here.

Now that I know what not to do when I use a restroom out in public while carrying, I'm interested to know what some of y'all do do with your gun when visiting public restrooms. I'm still waiting on my plastic and the IWB holster for my intended EDC but I've tried to imagine and mentally prepare for just such a scenario. Now some restrooms are "private" and only allow one person in at a time. I don't see a problem in this case, but I'm sure the OP didn't either Others have multiple urinals and stalls. I'm sure it depends some on what gun you have and how you are concealing, but obviously some care must be taken. I've thought about starting my own thread on this but couldn't pass up the opportunity to post my query here since it is sort of on topic. Apologies if this is considered hijacking.

There's a window ledge above/behind the toilet in our upstairs bathroom. Depending on what holster I'm wearing, I've used that ledge to hold my gun occasionally. And I've left it there (twice so far) when I left the bathroom. Just the possibility of events like that were the determining factor in my teaching my kids gun safety and how to shoot as early as possible.

Having learned from making this mistake at home, if I'm using a public restroom I don't ever remove my gun. Best practice for me has been to loosen my belt to the last notch (or as loose as possible without opening a web belt completely), and drop my trousers to just below my knees. I can keep the holster in place by keeping a bit of tension on the loosened belt.

I have one holster with a tuckable clip... For this one I use the same technique (belt loosened) and just rotate the holster around so that the gun is between my belt and my knee/upper shin. This prevents the gun part of the holster from flopping away from the tuckable part of the clip and "falling" into the leg of my pants. (hard to explain this one, but if you have a tuckable single loop holster you know what I mean)

jeffrw wrote:Some time ago I was having a little work done on my car, and while waiting I used the restroom. Right next to the toilet was a little recessed shelf, and it seemed easiest to just remove my IWB holster (with the gun in it as usual) and set it there on the shelf.

Well, from my subject line you know what happened next.

I've lost a wristwatch or two in that fashion, and almost my cellphone one time. I assume you had to do the #2. Well, I refuse to do #2's anywhere else except for my house for germaphobic reasons, so I don't think I'm in any danger of that happening to me. Still haven't had an emergency that could not wait until I got home But if and when that day comes... I've got a choice to make.

I don't find it necessary to remove my holstered gun or just the gun when sitting down on a public or home toilet. As has been reported numerous times, you will forget it sooner or later.

I use an IWB most of the time. While still standing, I lower my pants until the waistband is just below my knees. I keep tension on the pants' waistband with my knees and then lower my underpants so the elastic waist wraps over the grip of the gun. Boxers or briefs work the same way. Then I can sit down. After that I can release the tension on the waistband a little without the holster and gun flopping over on the floor. I believe the same technique would work with an OWB holster. Sometimes I use an inside the pants groin holster (Smartcarry). That one is the easiest to deal with, you just lower it with your underpants and then sit down. As long as you don't let pants and all fall all the way to the floor, the gun will stay holstered.

Some like to remove their gun from whatever holster they are wearing on their belt and set it in the hammock formed by their briefs when they are pulled down. However, this might not work very well when you are wearing boxers. Also, I think it's always better to leave you gun holstered if you don't need to use it or store it. JMHO.

My cousin's family had a near tragedy from a gun left in the bathroom of their home. As a teenager, he took the loaded family .38 into the bathroom while home alone, to take a shower (maybe because he'd just watched Psycho...). Anyway, he forgot about it. My aunt found it while cleaning up the bathroom. Assuming it was a toy, she shot a hole in the tile. I shudder to think of what might have happened.

Leaving your gun in the restroom is easy to do if you get distracted. This happend with an LEO at the El Paso Airport less than a year ago. She left her H&K in the stall and another person found it. Fortunately the person who discovered it reported it and it was recovered with no incident. Just saying, it can happen even to professionals.

Kadelic wrote:Now that I know what not to do when I use a restroom out in public while carrying, I'm interested to know what some of y'all do do with your gun when visiting public restrooms. I'm still waiting on my plastic and the IWB holster for my intended EDC but I've tried to imagine and mentally prepare for just such a scenario. Now some restrooms are "private" and only allow one person in at a time. I don't see a problem in this case, but I'm sure the OP didn't either Others have multiple urinals and stalls. I'm sure it depends some on what gun you have and how you are concealing, but obviously some care must be taken. I've thought about starting my own thread on this but couldn't pass up the opportunity to post my query here since it is sort of on topic. Apologies if this is considered hijacking.

Just search for "restroom" or "bathroom" and "public" and you will get pages and pages of stories and advice. And that's just on this forum.

jeffrw wrote:Some time ago I was having a little work done on my car, and while waiting I used the restroom. Right next to the toilet was a little recessed shelf, and it seemed easiest to just remove my IWB holster (with the gun in it as usual) and set it there on the shelf.

There have been people discussing guns in bathrooms for a long time in these forums. I've never quite understood the commotion. I simply lay my gun inside my pants. No problem, hard to lose this way.

...you could have warned us...

speedsix wrote:...you could have warned us...

No kidding! This is about the umpty-ump thread about bathroom protocol since I joined this forum a little over three years ago.

The answer is simple. Do like I do. Wait until you get home and/or "plan ahead of time," so to speak.

Y'all forgot "don't hang it on the door hook."