ConcealedCarryMatch.com, a Dating Site for Gun Owners

ConcealedCarryMatch.com is one of the newest dating websites and possibly the first gun-centric one. Concealed Carry Match was co-founded by Molly Lund and Jim Minthorn, who by all appearances truly do support gun rights. Their website states part of their motivation for creating the service was to “[provide] a safe site where she [Molly] believes that confident women can come to meet men with similar interests who are not intimidated by female gun ownership.” Let’s face it, some guys are scared by guns and women with guns. Other guys, myself included, find it incredibly appealing and a practical necessity for a mate.

I signed up for a free membership and took a look around the website. Unfortunately, as desirable as a fully employed man without children or roommates might be, I’m single and have been for quite a while. Vegas is universally criticized as a terrible place to date, and let me tell you, that’s true. Those who know me can attest I’m not bad looking (a little average) and a pretty cool, normal dude. Without a large social network of single friends, I’m stuck turning to online dating. I’ll admit I have too much experience with online dating, including with every major reputable dating website (sadly my horror stories came from women I knew from real life). Anyhow, take it that I know my stuff.

Concealed carry dating is an interesting take, probably a little bit gimmicky, but if gun owners buy into the concept, why not try it? I tend to like the idea of interest-specific dating websites because at least you know that everyone you’re looking up has a similar worldview on your nearest and dearest belief to you. For me, since guns come right after my Christian faith, its really, really, really important. I don’t want a date to hug me and have her get disgusted when she touches my IWB holster.

There website doesn’t really have anything that can be used to track you down, unless you have terrible web safety practices and someone with great Google-Fu finds your photos with your home’s latitude and longitude embedded in the photo of your guns. And since everyone is guaranteed to be armed, and at least in theory carries a gun, it’s probably not a predator’s first choice of hunting ground.

As with any online dating service for heterosexuals, especially a brand new one, it’s a sausage party. Judging from the photos of the women, they’re probably not bots like the Ashley Madison scam and they’re pretty decent looking ladies. The guys are your typical early-adopter online dating guys. Of the male profiles that had photos, none really stood out as the well-tatted, bearded hottie veteran of the Sandbox that my subconscious believes all women are looking for. Then again, none stood out as guy’s I’d be afraid to hang out with lest I inadvertently be implicated in their secret sex dungeon scheme. Of course, my judgement of men’s attractiveness is pretty limited considering I’m a straight, white male.

The website looks good and works, but the features need improvement. Searching for a mate is mainly a manual process. It’s a brand new idea and functionality is low. To be honest, with a new concept so specific and such low membership, there doesn’t need to be a ton of bells and whistles. One can sort through the profiles pretty easily to determine what they are looking for. For those that require extensive ‘matching’ algorithms to tell them how to date, this isn’t your website. One has to be pretty serious about finding someone to actually read profiles and find a match, which isn’t a problem for an actually serious person. Now if you want a catalog of guys and gals to sort through, try POF or swiping on Tinder.

Right now, the website needs to be searchable by location, able to discriminate by state or location based on zip code. It’s a little annoying, but it wasn’t a problem with the single digit pages of women for me to scroll through. If popularity takes off, more details need to be added to profiles in searchable categories. I’ll use OK Cupid’s statistics and basic search filters for one. At more than a few hundred members per sex, manually looking for someone will be a disincentive.

Would I seriously use this website? Sure, if there were more members. Right now, due to the low membership I’d compare posting a profile to going to the grocery store looking nice and smiling in the hope I ran into my soulmate at the deli counter. This isn’t hitting up the bar at midnight to find someone else just as desperate and drunk as you to go home with. The better option at the moment would be to carefully weed out profiles on established dating sites to find people with similar interests. If membership grows to a healthy and respectable number, this would be an excellent way for gun owners to connect and find a relationship without the worry of ‘coming out’ to a date as a gun owner, or heaven forbid, someone who carries.

So if you’re single and not terrified of dating websites, create a profile and throw up a picture. There is a limited option free version, a 14-day trial option, and plans starting from a $30 monthly membership. Maybe gun owners can find each other, reproduce, and our offspring can take back all of our right to keep and bear arms. As for me, I’ll throw my picture up there. You never know.

-GC