That makes sense (after all, William Penn made much the same complain to George Fox, IIRC). I apologize if I was too general. I've met a number of people who carry a knife in a scabbard and use it every day; I suspect they'd feel the same way.

I have a grandfather-in-law who's a master gunsmith; especially now that his wife is gone, there are rifles *everywhere* in his house. I think he'd probably agree with you about feeling naked without one to hand ... but I don't feel the least bit unsafe around him, no matter what armaments are there.

But in the specific case I'm thinking of, I really think it was fear rather than habit; he used words like "I feel unsafe" rather than "I feel underdressed". To my knowledge, he'd never been in the military or been a subsistence hunter (though I guess in the latter case you'd carry a rifle rather than a handgun anyway).