goldfish,
Welcome to the Realm of the Enlightened -- as you have decided YOU should be carrying a handgun (the ultimate "tool" for self-defense) in order to look out after your own personal safety/protection, rather than depend on/call someone else to help you! After all, no one is more interested in YOUR safety than YOU are (or your loved ones of course), so YOU are the one ultimately responsible, not someone else.
If possible, besides getting answers from experienced members here in this Forum as you have and will be getting, also try to attend one of our (Colorado) Open Carry (OC) Get-Together Events where you can get plenty of such info in-person from people who carry every day...although we usually OC since CO is an OC state (although most of us also have a Colorado Conceal Carry (CC) permit, we almost always OC anyway -- for a number of reasons).
Among other things, at our OC Events we also help "newbies" get started carrying and offer moral support/encouragement, so they feel more comfortable carrying however they wish to do so -- OC or CC.
So, look for the "States" area here in the Forum's main page, then scroll-down to find the "Colorado" sub-forum -- this is where the get-togethers are posted, in the "Colorado Events" thread at the top.
P.S. You might also want to indicate what Colorado city/town you are in by editing your "Profile" to include that info, as most of us here do (as seen to the left below one's Forum member-name/ID). As you can see in my case, I'm in Colorado Springs.