Demonizing 'one in the chamber'

Legal & Second Amendment
21

Situational Awareness states avoid, not approach that type of situation. As to your friend’s negligent discharge, that is a training issue, not a chambered round issue. As @Todd30 pointed out, the Four Rules (now 3 based on revised NRA training), are designed to keep everyone safe. One must break more than one rule to endanger someone/oneself. Chambered or not, your friend was not safely handling the firearm. That is not an excuse for you - nor anyone else - to not carry chambered. If one gets into a bad situation, while adhering to Situational Awareness, then one is already well behind the curve, and the more time it takes to defend oneself, the more likely the encounter will end badly.

The reason for chambered carry is to give oneself the most advantage possible in a very bad situation.
As another poster mentioned, it’s your choice. Choose wisely, my friend. You and your loved ones are worth it - at least me and mine are.

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22

To me it comes down to odds and statistics. There are about 10,000 people injured every year with accidental discharges, probably most happen because of one in the chamber, that’s why some countries outlaw it. How many mountain lion attacks are there each year? A total of 126 attacks, 27 of which were fatal, have been documented in North America in the past 100 years. It’s way more likely that I’ll shoot myself in the foot from an accidental discharge from one in the chamber than being attacked by a mountain lion. In fact I do have a family member that did shoot himself in the foot LOL. Of course we are getting way off topic, this thread was about the media demonizing one in the chamber, I’m sure there are tons of threads about if we should or should not carry that way.

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23

Agree that the odds of an animal attack in the woods are incredibly small. I spent decades wandering around in wild places for recreation or mostly doing wildlife research. For the vast majority of that time all I had was a pocket knife and occasionally some bear spray if I was working alone in grizzly country.

My only real concern in the woods is two legged predators. They often approach in a reasonably friendly enough manor that you can’t be certain they are up to no good until they are too close to chamber a round without causing quite a fuss.

A firearm can be a dangerous tool if handled improperly. But millions of people carry them safely every day. In this country the vast majority seem to manage to do it with a round in the chamber. But that is a personal choice. I can envision many situations where an empty firearm on your hip is better then one left back at home. You just have to be aware of the significant disadvantage you will be in for all those potential encounters where you have a very limited window in which to deploy and make it ready to use. In some of those situations you may have to settle for complying with the demands of your attacker and hoping for the best since the window won’t be large enough to safely draw and rack.

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24

That implies you are not confident in your training. That is not a risk-benefit assessment.

Your OP was more involved than that, which is why we have all responded as we did. The media does not demonize chambered carry, it demonizes law-abiding citizens that are firearm owners. That is one of the reasons we are in this forum.

One of our missions, jobs, ideals, is to educate people in order for people to understand firearm safety and our RKBA. One aspect of the RKBA is self-defense. Situational Awareness is part of self-defense, which includes avoid, retreat, hide, fight. Once we find ourselves in a “fight” situation, we have already “lost”, and the only recourse is to win. The best way to win is to have all the advantages one is able to utilize, one being a chambered round if one is carrying a firearm. Again, that is a personal choice; it is not relevant what anyone else, nor the media, believes.

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25

@HELLCAT >> kinda foolin around but the big cats are no joke, you know better than I that they have killed and eaten quit a few people.
PS: DID YOU EVER HEAR THE STORY ABOUT CLAWED BALLS :question:

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26

Everyone needs to decide for themselves, but for myself that would be a bad guess.

If I see or hear wildlife, I don’t need a gun. I have a 99.99% chance of moving away, shooing them off, or negotiating a respectful truce. If I need deadly force, it’s because I didn’t see or hear them — then a one or two second draw to first shot may or may not be fast enough to regain initiative. I know that I cannot fit a slide rack into a 1.5sec draw. I know that I cannot speed that up if an animal is chewing on my strong or weak hand, and I might be distracted if they are chewing on my head or neck.

The dynamics are different in the significantly greater threat from human animals, but the time calculus remains the same — early recognition and appropriate response will usually make the use of force unnecessary, but any delay in detecting the threat will not allow time for fiddling with the gun to prepare it for use.

I do not carry intentionally compromised weapons.

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27

All my Pistols have Thunb Safteys on them and when I drwa my thumb is on the satey and My triggar fingerf is in the straih=ght position on the slide and if it cames to making desiion to fir my thumb and finger move as one

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28

It’s ok not to be chambered. Sure, may be minority, but that is ok too. We all here got lots in common.

Right now, I’m experiencing a family member who’s thinking about purchasing a firearm. If so, we’d enjoy our times together more, hobby fun too. Of course I’m hyper safe.

I can tell my relative is contemplating to buy or not to buy, and it’s clear the thought of one in the chamber is on their mind as they would be at home a lot with lots of family around.

So for that person, they may go unchambered, especially earlier in their firearm life journey. They and I been taking strong second looks at those with manual thumb safety’s; As then we can have the safety on and feel better about being chambered, if we want to.

Experience and socialization:
Last week I observed persons handling loaded firearms. I paid close attention to their safe discipline around the trigger. Some were more carefree or careless, and that scared me, luckily I knew some of them and spoke with them about keeping that finger far away from the trigger, pointed in a safe direction, and cover that firearm in a holster, even if off the body, to “cover protect” that trigger.

My thought, rather unchambered than leaving it at home. That the person be comfortable, and have fun in the journey or lifestyle. Conducting oneself safely, ethically, legally.

One can always decide to chamber in the future, or not, got options there; No pressure.

I’m usually chambered. But, I respect how you roll. Stay safe.

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29

Oh, starting out as a new shooter/owner — just like learning to “shoot” dry before range time — I think it is a very good custom to practice carrying the gun completely empty until comfort and safe proficiency make everybody happy (i.e. shooter, coach, family members).

Like doing holster work with an empty gun, there are lots of things to figure out — is it comfortable, can I quit fiddling with it, can everybody see it, how do I pee, can I walk away from A-holes, what about the kids, hugging acquaintances, bending over and reaching high, where are prohibited areas, am I still vulnerable to Kryptonite, what are the laws, etc, etc. After visualization, actually going through all the motions is probably safer to figure out and more comfortable to risk while carrying an unloaded gun.

If the familiarization process needs to include confidence steps with obstacles like lock boxes, Condition 4, or Condition 3, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Hopefully those phases pass before an urgent need for the gun comes up. But if the comfort never arrives, it may still be better than knowing nothing and leaving the weapon in the gun shop. I say it may be better because if that discomfort never passes, I have questions about safe competence of the uncomfortable shooter. But everyone needs to pick a path they can tolerate.

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30

Someone said that chambering a round in a self defense situation is like putting on your seatbelt 1 sec before a crash. Thats why I sold my 1911( that and the fact it was a dumpster fire). I couldnt get too comfy carrying it with a round in the pipe and safety on. To each their own and i applaud those who carry a 1911 like that.

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31

But not all people. There isn’t one answer for anything. Do what is right for you, as an informed firearm carrier.

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32

This is the one case where I would consider carrying without one in the chamber. I’m in the minority here in that I hardly ever carry at home but with a child in the house always have one locked in a quick access safe nearby. I live in a far safer than average neighborhood, know all my neighbors and we have very few strangers traveling by on our dead end road. I also have a son who occasionally likes to imitate Kato from the Pink Panther movies. Though it is unlikely I would lose control of my firearm I don’t ever want to accidentally show off my FBI dance floor moves when my son and I are goofing around.

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33

Carry how you feel comfortable. Just make sure you train for how you carry. There are miltaries around the world that don’t allow them to carry chambered.

I carry with 1 in the chamber for a simple reason…it may be the only shot I can get off. The real world may prevent me from being able to rack the gun correctly. Maybe I am struggling with someone and I can get unholstered but not clear enough to fully rack the slide. Maybe I am in the car and in the drivers seat I can’t fully rack either. You just never know.

Even if I get a first shot off, there is no guarantee of any follow up shots. Maybe I have to shoot single handed with my off hand from a non-perfect stance. In all likely hood I will limp wrist it in that scenario.

It took me a while to get comfortable carrying with one in the chamber, but now I put one in before I step outside my house.

I do train with snap caps on racking one hand. Both dominant and non-dominant. I also train at the range shooting single handed from a couple different stances. Again with both dominant and non-dominant hands.

Good luck and stay safe.

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34

That should sum it up!

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35

Nah…a chambered gun, just sitting there, with no finger on the trigger is no more dangerous than a rock. It’s not one in the chamber that gets folks into trouble, is dumbness.

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36

I was living in a low-income apartment complex not long after I had purchased my first handgun. Not knowing anything much, I kept my pistol loaded, but not chambered.

I woke up in the middle of the night, and thought I heard the proverbial Bump in The Night. I grabbed my gun and as quietly as I could racked the slide.

My gun jammed half way. I couldn’t get my slide to go backward, and I couldn’t get it to go forward. I couldn’t drop my magazine. I started sweating like never before. I eventually pulled my magazine out by main force, racked the jammed round out, reloaded my pistole, racked another round in and charged upstairs.

Nobody was there, which was good, because I had surrendered any sort of element of surprise and any composure I might have had.

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37

I don’t think ignorance is the only culprit. Complacency, overconfidence, distraction and bad luck can also contribute to bad outcomes.

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38

I think those are all a part of “dumbness” — ignorance is just one on-ramp to dumbness.

If we didn’t all need to guard against dumbness, we wouldn’t need all the rules. Without dumb, it would be enough to simply say “Don’t shoot anything you don’t mean to shoot.” :wink:

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39

Yup. The key is for all of us to realize that even the smartest most qualified people in the room with perfect track records are capable of having a dumb moment every once in a rare while. It’s not just the newbies who make mistakes.

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40

First, ignorance (lack of some specific knowledge, without attribution of why) and dumbness (failure to think) are not the same thing.
Second, with regard to the lack specific knowledge of about handguns, movies and television shows actively contribute to the “training with misinformation” world of ignorance. Last night I watched a British spy movie, MI5; the top terrorist bad guy racked the slide, killed a hostage, then racked the slide again before aiming the pistol at another hostage.
Cowboys have to cock the six shooter for each shot, don’t modern shooters have to cock the gun (rack the slide) for each shot, just the same?

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