The old self-defense adage that says “two is one and one is none” is pretty good advice.  What it really means is that it is important to have a back-up for your primary pieces of gear.  If you only carry one handgun and it fails, you are in trouble.  Let’s focus on your CCW handgun and what might be needed to serve as a back-up and some of the reasons you might consider carrying a BUG.

                Carrying one concealed weapon at all times is hard enough, now we are going to add a second gun into the mix?  In order of importance, the BUG may not be as high a priority as other pieces of kit such as a tactical flashlight or cell phone, but it is important and could be a life-saver.

The most obvious reason to carry a second weapon is failure of your primary.  It does happen and you certainly do not have the time to figure out what went wrong.  There are other, perhaps less obvious, reasons for a BUG.  One of the biggest is to arm another responsible citizen in the case of an emergency.  If something goes bad, I want other people around me that I trust to be armed and prepared to aid in the defense.  Who you choose to arm is up to you.

There’s also the possibility that you cannot access your primary due to being pinned or injured.  That’s why it is a good idea to carry the BUG opposite where your primary resides.  If you normally carry behind your hip on the right side, try putting the BUG in your front left pocket or even left ankle.  This allows more options for accessing a firearm in critical situations.

                Once you have made the decision to carry a BUG, make sure it’s legal in your state to carry more than one gun.  Once the legalities are out of the way, let’s begin with the selection process for your BUG.  I am a huge fan of your BUG being very similar to your primary weapon.  This is so the operation and even trigger feel of both weapons is intimately familiar and repeatable. 

It is not the best idea to go from a light single action trigger with manual safety on your primary to a heavy double action revolver for your BUG.  The manual of arms, feel of the trigger, caliber (in all likelihood) will be completely different.  The “Keep it Simple” rule applies here.  Don’t count on being able to smoothly transition from one type of firearm to a completely different animal during the heat of battle without encountering some issues.  So, keep your BUG as similar in the operation and feel to your primary as possible.

                Primary carry gun a Glock 23?  In an ideal world, a Glock 27 would be perfect as your back-up.  Exactly the same manual of arms, very similar feel, even shoots the same caliber.  Can’t swing the Glock 27 as a BUG, how about a Ruger LCP?  Not exactly the same but still very similar operation.  Assess what works for you and what you can properly conceal, always with an eye towards that “KISS” principle.

                The last critical item for your BUG is PRACTICE.  Practice drawing with the support hand from that opposite location and putting shots down-range only with the support hand.  Lie down on the ground and pretend your strong side has been knocked out of commission; can you still get to your BUG and operate it?  It’s even a good idea to practice drawing your primary, put several shots down range, then simulate a failure and drop that primary and go for the BUG.  Standing on a static range and shooting holes in a paper target at a relaxed pace is not going to prepare you for the fight.  Think about how and why the BUG might be used and try to simulate that during practice.

                A BUG is typically a smaller gun that can easily be concealed.  Following the suggestions above, it can also be a critical component to your safety and one certainly worthy of consideration.

Tom Smith is the owner of Stillwater Armory in Stillwater, OK.  He teaches self-defense and firearms classes as well as providing valuable insight into gear selection in his retail store.  Each state has different concealed carry laws.  Be sure to know and understand your state’s laws and never violate those laws.