Should i carry my pistol chambered

Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target. Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.

Constitution is all about and the main difference between the Libertarians and the main stream Democrats and most Republicans now. I used to think that, too. The education arm has lots of good information and safety rules. It really does. A few years back, I saved the life of a guy who thought he needed to keep a live round in the chamber. He did. Right into his inner thigh, severing the femoral artery. Had I not gotten a tourniquet on him within 2 min of the negligent discharge, he would have bled out.

Condition 1 carry is just a recipe for a disaster. I had some friends growing up that were playing with an automatic. Left one in the chamber and removed the magazine. One kid shot the other in the leg. Plus the manual safety is on when a round is in the chamber. I know of soooooo many negligent discharges leading to serious injury or death. Why take the risk?

You know that a guy from the band Chicago was killed by shooting himself with a gun he thought was empty, right? Pulled out the magazine, but there was still a shot in the chamber. But you know, these Condition 1 carry guys will never agree, no matter how many people are shot and possibly killed by their carelessness. There should be a strong feeling of respect every time you are handling or in the presence of a firearm.

A firearm is not going to fire on its own. Negligent discharges come from human error. But with a proper holster with percent concealment and blocking of the trigger carry condition 1. I laugh at the comment of racking the slide takes 1 second. Start practicing. Now have somebody actively trying to kill you and try to do it.

Now try and clear a malfunction in that same situation. Be responsible and be respectful of a firearm. Do your homework. For a UK reader there are two extraordinary issues in the situation you describe. Firstly, firearms protocol. Unless in a condition of war or imminent threat to life, guns and ammunition here must be stored separately whilst not in use. Then the gun is stored and locked away and the ammunition put elsewhere. This simple rule stops these incidents here.

The second issue is that this handgun debacle played out among octogenarians in a Methodist church! Although he was not a pure pacifist, he would never have passed round a gun in church. I have no religion. Gun safes are also very popular here to protect guns from theft or being accessed by children. And yes, I do agree that the church situation is absurd. The mass shootings we seem to experience on a weekly basis gives them justification for carrying.

And life and death goes on here in the US. This is a debate I have been having with myself for a quite a while. There is a definite time lag to rack a slide. For home defense, generally you will be alerted before the threat is face to face. You have time to rack a pistol. For concealed carry, the only time you should pull out a gun is if you are certain to fire it.

Racking will definitely put you at a disadvantage. My solution to this is to only purchase guns with safeties and even better, decockers. What is curious is that some manufacturers one is in the top three brands do not offer safeties on their pistols. Many others have few models in there lines with safeties.

Situational awareness can definitely keep a person out of trouble. Before descending into the underground passageway back to my office building — which is where he likely would have grabbed my purse or done worse — I stopped in front of an open shop, turned to face him and give him a good look, and then stepped into the shop. When I came out five minutes later, he was gone. Thieves in big cities prey upon them. It seems like the default mode for the majority of the human race is heads down, eyes glued to the screen, completely unaware of what happens around them.

And you are right about the diehard condition-one fanboys. Most of them fetishize the Colt type pistol in. To them condition-one carry is a religious devotion, separating and elevating their exalted ranks from the rest of the unworthy. No amount of statistics or common sense can change their minds.

If you anticipate the possibility of someone else getting your gun, that's really a problem of equipment. You clearly need to get some equipment that will prevent that from happening, such as a gun safe or lock box in the home, or a holster in the case of carrying the gun or at least a more secure holster. Or what about those Glock pistols or other ones like it that "fire when the trigger is pulled"?

Aren't those more "dangerous" than guns that have a thumb safety on it? When safely stored or holstered, a modern striker-fired pistol is no more or less dangerous than any other kind. If nothing can pull the trigger, it cannot be discharged. If being carried, a holster of good construction prevents that from happening.

A safe storage medium - even a cheap-o lockbox from the hardware store, though an actual safe would be better - keeps a loaded gun secure when being stored. You probably get the idea by now.

People carry with an empty chamber because they have a fear of the risk of the gun being fired by accident, or store a gun with an empty chamber for the same reason. However, it is also the case that the potential scenarios in which they might occur are not only surmountable, but the methods for doing so are known and have been known for quite some time.

Granted, this isn't to say you or anyone else isn't right in being concerned about gun safety. You are absolutely right to take the potential danger seriously. When mishandled or used by people with evil intentions, guns are deadly. That danger needs to be respected, and your responsibility in restraining, containing and managing that power is commensurate with the destructive potential of a gun.

However, this is also to say that it is perfectly possible to carry or store a loaded gun safely. The means required to do so are not mysterious, complicated, nor expensive or difficult to acquire or learn about. Many people who insist on keeping their gun unloaded obviously have respect for the dangers of firearms, but likely are lacking in the experience or confidence to do otherwise. Get yourself equipped with a proper holster and a safe storage medium, and get some training.

It will make a huge difference. Trevor Dobrygoski has been a freelance copywriter since He has written about many different topics over the years. His is outfitting police and other public safety vehicles with all of the equipment the law enforcement and other first responders need to save lives. When not working and writing, he is coaching, refereeing and playing soccer. My Cart. Shop All Holsters.

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Holster Gear. Gun Belts. Gift Card. Track Order. Product Testing. International FAQ. Shapeshift Release Calendar. CCW Map. CCW Resources. Handgun Comparisons. Shooting Targets. Posted: May 13, Comments: 7. Author: Hunter Gilroy. In some cases it's not legal. Many semi-auto handguns have an alternative safety. The Springfield XD series, for example, needs your hand gripping the handle and pulling the trigger at the same time for the gun to fire.

Know the laws for the state you are in and do not cross the boundaries. He opened it up and looked surprised. He asked me, in a stunned voice, why all of the chambers had a round in them. I thought he had lost his mind. I told him I wanted every round I could get in there.

I asked him, "Why would I leave any chamber empty? You're the one that likes to keep one empty in your semi-auto. In his own special way, "The Hammer" showed me how flawed my thinking had been.

I carried a revolver fully loaded with no worries about a live round in every chamber. All it took was a trigger press for a round to come out.

Yet, when carrying a semi-automatic, I somehow believed that it was dangerous to keep it in the exact same condition. Is it really any safer to carry a semi-automatic without a live round in the chamber? In theory it is, because a round cannot discharge if you press the trigger accidentally.

But with that logic, it is even better to carry a firearm without any rounds in the chamber or the magazine. No proponent of concealed carry would argue that this is a logical safety solution. Another consideration has to be the tactical aspect.

The reasoning is that if there is a serious enough issue that you need to use your firearm, then you can draw it and chamber a round into place at that time. But is that really the case?