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If, like me, you've found yourself partaking or participating in modern American gun culture, especially on the EDC side of things, then you've probably heard the following statement repeated at least once: "The whole point of concealed carry is that nobody knows you have a gun." It can be a comforting statement to someone who is nervous about starting to carry a gun in public, but ultimately that popular statement is false and should not be repeated. The whole point of carrying a concealed firearm is so that if you are unlucky enough to be in a situation where your life or that of you or someone you love is being seriously threatened you can use said firearm to mitigate or eliminate that threat. The hypothetical scenario of someone seeing your gun when you are within your right to do so is not the one you should be worried about.
I've been carrying a gun on me for quite a while now and I have become quite comfortable in doing so because I know that there is nothing illegal or immoral about the way in which I carry a gun, I have a permit and training to do so and I know the relevant laws in my state and the states that I visit. I'm not worried about what might happen if I'm out in public and a stranger notices that I have a gun hiding under my shirt because I know I'm not doing anything wrong because I don't take guns anywhere that I'm not supposed to have them. The worst case scenario in such a circumstance would be me getting kicked out of some business where I would simply comply because not doing so is not worth the trouble, but I don't think that will ever actually happen to me because really the only people who will actually notice that you have a gun on you are the people you'd want to know anyways, namely law enforcement, criminals, and other citizens who are carrying a concealed weapon, regular people don't pay attention and are too busy focusing on their own problems to pay any attention to you.
It actually surprises me that the people I'm around often don't notice that I have a gun on me. Keep in mind I'm 6'1" with a beard, wear flannel shirts and cowboy boots nine months out of the year, I have the pocket clip to a knife visible in my back pocket, the clip to a powerful flashlight in my front pocket, and I am almost always wearing a baseball cap and up until recently that hat would almost always have the logo to a gun company on it. I look like the type of guy who you'd expect to have a gun on him and yet my friends don't notice that I do. You could be printing like crazy and people who don't know what to look for won't see anything.
That being said most of my friends know that I carry because I've told them, I don't see a point in keeping that a secret from people that I trust like many people do. I'm not a secret agent or something stupid like that, I'm just a regular responsible guy exercising my God given rights. There should be nothing abnormal about that but because we live in a culture where for whatever reason such a practice is perceived as uncommon people don't think it is normal. If you carry, don't be afraid to tell people that you carry and the rational reason why you do. The media tries to paint gun owners as something they are not, don't let them do that, show people who we really are.
The point of concealed carry is not to hide a gun from people but to be able to use that gun to protect people if the need arises. Never forget that and never preach otherwise.