Where to Put Your Gun When You Use the Bathroom: A Concealed Carry Guide
From Behind the Holster, a Concealed Coalition podcast, hosted by Jody Picou with Austin Davis, Concealed Coalition’s National Director of Training.
Anyone who carries a firearm every day will need to use the bathroom at some point, usually more than once. It is one of the most routine moments of daily carry and one of the least planned. In this episode of Behind the Holster, Jody Picou, a Concealed Coalition master trainer with more than 13 years of experience and over 100,000 students trained, talks it through with Austin Davis, who has spent more than 30 years teaching law enforcement, corporations and civilians how to prevent, manage and recover from crime. Their answer is simple: keep the firearm under your control the entire time, and build a routine so you never have to improvise.
Why do concealed carriers need a plan for bathroom breaks?
Carrying a firearm every day is not a single decision. Jody describes it as a complete lifestyle change, and bathroom breaks are where that change shows up most often. Every carrier deals with them, at work, at church, on the road and at home, yet very few think about them in advance.
Austin’s point is that a predictable situation should never be handled on the fly. If you know it will happen every day, you can decide ahead of time how you will handle it, and that decision is what keeps the firearm from ever being left unattended.
How should you choose where to use the bathroom while carrying?
Austin frames the question around people, place and process. People means being aware of who else is around and how exposed you are. Place means knowing which restrooms along your regular routes, at work, at your house of worship and wherever you spend time, feel safer and less exposed. A restroom in a high-end hotel is a very different environment from an outdoor gas station restroom with a broken lock and a key chained to a cinder block.
Process starts with your carry method. Austin suggests asking whether the way you carry makes a bathroom break easier or harder. Where the holster sits on your body plays a large role, and Jody notes he is not a fan of off-body carry, since the whole point is to keep the firearm attached to you.
What happens when a gun is left in a restroom?
It happens more often than most people assume, and not only to civilians. During the episode, Austin describes a case in Texas where a school resource officer left a firearm in a restroom, came back to find it gone, and the school was shut down the next day to search for it. He also recalls three separate incidents in his own police department where an officer left a full gun belt, with spare magazines, a taser and a baton, sitting in the bathroom.
In two of those cases, the officers argued that a police station was a safe place to leave it for a few minutes. Austin’s comparison is that owning a firearm is like keeping a rattlesnake as a pet: you would never leave it loose in the living room and assume it will be fine when you get back. It needs your attention all the time.
Where should you never set your firearm in a bathroom?
The top of a toilet paper dispenser is one of the worst options, and one of the most common. The surface is narrow, so a firearm set there can easily fall onto a tile floor. Austin describes the gun landing on the magazine, the base plate breaking and rounds rolling out under the stall. The back of the toilet and the hook on the stall door carry their own risks, including the chance of something catching the trigger of a modern polymer pistol.
The bigger danger is forgetting. Jody points out how often people leave a phone on top of a toilet paper roll, even though it holds their whole life. Out of sight is out of mind, and a firearm that is not attached to your body is far more likely to be left behind.
If the firearm has to come off, Austin recommends removing the gun and holster together as one unit. Holstering and unholstering is one of the most dangerous things you can do with a defensive firearm, so keeping the gun in its holster removes that step entirely. For more on choosing a holster that fits the way you live, see Holster Types Explained.
How does a one way every time rule prevent mistakes?
Jody’s view is that what you do in one place, you end up doing in all places. That is why he handles his firearm one way every time. Years ago he made an agreement with his wife that if the gun and holster ever come off inside the house, they go straight into a safe. Not onto the dresser while he changes clothes, and not onto the kitchen counter while he cooks.
The risk is not a single moment on the dresser. It is the habit it builds, the idea that it is fine to set the gun down just this once. Austin reinforces this with a reminder he says out loud every morning when he puts his firearm on: it is an inherently safe tool that is completely unforgiving of careless mistakes. Any break in concentration, like stepping away to answer an email, leaves it unsecured.
Both hosts agree the worst possible outcome is a firearm you brought into your life for protection harming someone you meant to protect. The same logic of carrying responsibly also came up in the previous episode on alcohol and firearms.
How does clothing affect carrying through the day?
Austin does practice draws when he gets dressed to make sure no cover garment interferes with his draw. He also considers how his clothing will help him handle the gun safely, securely and without being noticed during a bathroom break. Some clothes simply are not suited for carry.
Jody adds that printing, when the outline of the firearm is visible through clothing, can be worse than open carry. Austin notes that the people you carry to protect yourself from are usually far more observant than you expect. For more on that debate, see Open Carry vs. Concealed Carry.
In the members-only follow-up to this episode, Jody and Austin walk through a simple four-letter routine you can run every time you use the bathroom. Join the Concealed Coalition channel membership to watch it.
Frequently asked questions
Where should I put my gun when I use a public restroom?
Ideally, the gun stays on your body in its holster. If it has to come off, remove the gun and holster together as one unit and keep it within your control the entire time. Avoid setting it on a toilet paper dispenser, the back of the toilet or a stall hook, where it can fall, be forgotten or be taken.
Is it dangerous to take my gun out of the holster in a bathroom stall?
Yes. Holstering and unholstering is one of the most dangerous things you can do with a defensive firearm. Taking the gun and holster off together avoids handling the gun itself in a cramped space.
How often do people leave guns in bathrooms?
Often enough that it happens to trained professionals. Concealed Coalition’s National Director of Training, Austin Davis, recalls three incidents in his own police department where officers left full gun belts in a bathroom, and describes a Texas case where a school resource officer’s gun went missing from a restroom.
Does my carry position matter for bathroom breaks?
It does. Where the holster sits on your body can make a bathroom break easier or harder, so it is worth testing your setup with that in mind. The goal is a carry method that lets the firearm stay attached to you.
Is off-body carry a good option for daily carry?
Jody Picou, host of Behind the Holster, is not a fan of off-body carry. A firearm that is not attached to your body is more likely to be set down, forgotten or accessed by someone else.
What should I do with my gun when I take it off at home?
Put it straight into a safe. Jody Picou follows this rule without exceptions, because setting the gun down just once, on a dresser or a counter, builds the habit of leaving it unsecured everywhere else.
How can I make handling my firearm more consistent?
Handle it one way every time and build a simple routine you repeat in every situation. Consistency removes the need to improvise, which is when careless mistakes happen.
So where should your gun go when you use the bathroom?
The answer is that it should never leave your control. Keep it holstered on your body whenever possible. If it has to come off, take the gun and holster off as one unit and keep it with you, never on a dispenser, tank or hook. Choose restrooms that feel safer on the routes you use every day, dress in a way that makes the process easier, and handle the firearm the same way every time. As Austin puts it, if it’s predictable, it’s preventable.
Want to build safe carry habits with an instructor? Find concealed carry training near you, or browse holsters and carry gear in the Concealed Coalition store.
