Like most skills there is an evolution to the process of carrying a firearm. The desired end state is to carry with one in the chamber but the skills required to do so safely and confidently must come first or you add danger to a situation. There is nothing wrong with carrying without a round in the chamber and it is a good transition towards being fully prepared for a self-defense situation but it isn’t the same as being fully prepared. Reaction times can matter and a proper response must be considered before potentially making a fatal mistake.
It takes time to develop the confidence that you are being safe and that the correct habits have been formed before adding additional risk to any situation but particularly one with loaded firearms. The take-away should be that your desire and ability to react to a given situation needs to align with where you as a carrier/shooter are along this development curve. Never let anyone pressure you into being unsafe simply because “it is the way”. It becomes the way when it is your way and you have the skills and confidence required.
Ok concealed carry is a kind of duty to all innocent folks who go about life not wanting to harm others in any way. But unfortunately there’s a small number of evil SOB’s out there who have no value of life. But you must be able to do so safely. I carry just about everywhere I go, plus have a vault in my truck if I can’t carry where I’m going. I originally bought a Glock Model 23, .40 cal., but I found with no safety I could never carry with one in battery. It was nice to have 13 rounds +1, but no safety. Then I started to read and came up with a nice answer for myself. Now I carry a Kimber TRI-Tone Micro 9, 9 mm, with 8 round mag. That makes it 8+1, still 4 short of my Glock, hey up to 11 less than some 9mm. But I’m not planning to go into a shootout, just not be a victim cowering in hiding. But the beauty of a 1911, is they are designed for combat, with the safety, on full size 1911, you also have the grip safety. But even my Micro 9, with no grip safety can be carried very safely ready to go. It’s called Condition One, with one in battery, plus hammer cocked, with of course the external safety on, that will prevent fire, even if dropped! But I don’t have my hammer cocked, but one in the chamber ready to go! All I need to do is quickly and quietly cock the hammer and remove the safety and have 9 ready to defend myself and others if need be. I also have a mid tier membership with USCCA, to help me if needed.
How often do you put yourself on the clock, reacting, drawing, pulling hammer back, disengaging safety, and accurately hitting a target at say 5 yards, with one hand only?
There is also a firing pin block/safety to prevent firing if dropped. The firing pin block is disengaged whenever the trigger is pulled. That means if you slip holding the hammer while decocking, it will fire. The MIcro 9 was not designed for decocking.
I am not certain, but suspect the hammer cannot be cocked with the thumb safety ON. You probably already know the answer, but worth knowing if you don’t and need to cock it in an emergency.
I am not trying to tell you how to carry your firearm, just pointing out additional safety design, plus potential risk if you try to cock the hammer with the safety ON.
I prefer to rely on the designer’s intentions, which can indeed vary, depending on the design.
I also clean my pistols according to the designer’s intentions.
What part of read the owner’s manual don’t people understand?
On a Micro380 the slide can be run or the hammer manually cocked with the safety engaged — assume the 9mm is probably same. There is a functional half-cock which might help in the event of a slip, but I agree that these pistols are not intended to be decocked with a round in the chamber.
The .380 Kimber has a medium beavertail which I find would interfere with hammer cocking by the firing hand — I simply cannot do it from a firing grip, so that needs to be accomplished after. At a guess I would expect two seconds added to a 1.5 sec draw to first shot with one hand. Probably less than a second added if the support hand can do the cocking.
I can imagine no advantage to Condition 3 carry of a 1911-style pistol, and several disadvantages/dangers.
Since I was planning on carrying with one in the chamber, long before I ever started carrying my gun every day, I handled it A LOT at home, unloaded. Racked it. Aimed it. Emergency reloaded it. Got a very good feel for it. I made sure I understood how it worked; what would happen if I dropped it, could it fire with the mag out, how the safety worked, how to release the slide, etc. I also trained A LOT with live rounds, including drawing from a conceal holster. All of this made me very comfortable with my gun, and comfortable carrying with a round in the chamber. Personally, I don’t think a gun without a round in the chamber is probably worth a ■■■■, but that’s just my opinion. When time matters, you don’t want to be having to remember to rack your slide, or release a safety. I never use the safety either. I carry a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield 9mm
I could go into all the safety built into modern firearms with the short answer is you had better carry One in the chamber because a bad guy is not going to wait for you to rack the slide.
I’ve been in favor of carrying with one in the chamber for a while because it just seemed like an obvious advantage to me. Two weeks ago I took a pistol course and it became even more obvious as to why. We ran several drills where we didn’t shoot until the instructor called it or the shot timer beeped. It’s one thing to go to the range and shoot on your own time but it’s another thing to react to something, draw, and shoot. Sometimes we’d shoot, check our surroundings, and they’d yell something like, “he’s got a knife” or “he’s got a gun” while we were in the middle of looking back or something. Having to turn back, get on a target, and shoot an accurate shot string is not easy and that was a safe environment. Now imagine it’s legit threat to your life or somebody else’s and you have to observe, draw, and make a good first shot. Unless somebody is highly trained I think the average person doesn’t rack the slide or doesn’t rack it well enough under that level of stress.
