Poll: While carrying, is your chamber clear or locked and loaded?

[redhippie]

I buy firearms that have less or no safety ( lever, switch buttons etc.) If I need it ( God forbid I ever do) I do not want think about chambering,
remembering the safety on which gun I have. And then try and aim and shoot while in a panic mode situation.
From training I am not a jumpy guy, but you put too many obstacles in your way you might have time to throw the gun at the guy only.
The safety on guns I do own are off when carried and I chambered, and safety on when stored or stored chambered.
When I transport firearms I do unload them other then what is on my person.

I guess people can carry how they want, but if I can get out of a situation I will and messing with a firearm with a perp ftf id rather point and pull problem solved.

What about in the car? If it is on your person and ready access, I assume ready to rock. What about if it is in the glove box or center console? Shouldn't they either be strapped in a holster or chamber clear?

 

[CoastRange57]

What about in the car? If it is on your person and ready access, I assume ready to rock. What about if it is in the glove box or center console? Shouldn't they either be strapped in a holster or chamber clear?

Tactical training here people. A gun in the glove box or console is useless. By the time you are able to retrieve it and go to action, you are most likely already compromised big time. Here is a shocker, most of the time I carry two guns. If I am in the car, I have a Ruger 9mm in a holster in between the seat and console of my Explorer. Easy access for me or the wife, or a qualified passenger. If something comes at me that causes a need for a weapon, it is pulled and ready to pull the trigger.

I also usually carry a Tarus .380 in a pocket holster if a short distance, or a side holster if driving longer. If I have to leave the vehicle for any reason, I have that weapon on me with a extra clip, with out having to set up with the 9mm. Being inside a car is all defensive action. You will always be reacting to the aggressions of others. Train that way, and learn how to go offensive from the drivers seat.

Sometimes I reverse the guns, with the 380 in the seat and the 9mm / extra clip in my side holster. I just like the extra capacity and hit of the 9mm more.

If I am out in the woods, fishing, exploring, sight seeing, again, I always have 2 on me at all times. Those LCP / TCP series guns are great for that. Front pocket of my waders, back pocket of my shorts or jeans, great hide out / back up gun.

 

[NoOne]

I have a good friend who carried his 1911 with a round in the chamber, and hammer down...one step safer than no safety engaged. But a damned long distance away from the proper way to carry that weapon. I tried to tell him that the commonly accepted and recommend methods of carry were cocked and locked, or hammer down on an empty chamber. He put the pistol inside his waist band without a holster...something else I said was a bad idea. It ended up that when putting the pistol into his waistband, the hammer cocked...no safety on. Over the course of the day, his shirt bunched up inside the trigger and pressed the trigger.

He went into the mens room to take a leak, and afterwards, like most guys do when they are done, he went to hitch up his trousers, and re-tuck his shirt. He bumped the grip safety, and the gun went off. The bullet entered the top of his right butt cheek, exited the bottom of the butt cheek, re-entered the top of his right calf, traveled all the way down his calf muscle and stopped between his achilles tendon and outside of his right ankle. Fortunately, the 185 grain Remington JHP didn't expand and could have been reloaded.

I never did say "I told you so". We both knew that I had told him so, and he changed the way he carried a 1911 after that.

This was a fellow who had shot competitions for many years. But he thought it would work out for him because he was careful. If it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone..me included. So I have been very careful, and with great care has come a lack of self inflicted gun shot wounds.

 

[Kat3eWhit]

Because bad things happen to good people.

 

[Botte Hork]

But he thought it would work out for him because he was careful.

He *thought* he was careful, a little difference there.

 

[NoOne]

He *thought* he was careful, a little difference there.

I would suggest it was a HUGE difference between what he thought, and reality...especially after he shot himself in the ***. But, I told him so....

 

[Misterbill]

I always carry 99.99%, so in my case extras that are in cases etc are secured accordingly.
For me it very rare I have one in another place loaded and ready. I would say if its withing my reach then would be ready.

I worry about leaving any unattended weapon loaded and ready, my belief is if its within your control then by all means be hot. But I feel its unsafe in a vehicle to leave loaded and chambered, one would think a lawyer could have a field day on such action too. So for me within my control ready to go. Not then is secure,
( secure meaning for the situation either safety on, unloaded or not chambered )

NRA Basic Firearms Safety: "Rule #3: Always leave guns unloaded except when ready to use."

I define "Ready to use" as: "a weapon under your control that you intend to use in immediate self-defense. That also means the shotgun or AR that always stands along your bedstead. -UNTIL YOU LEAVE THE HOUSE." Anything else should be UNLOADED. that also means no mag in the gun. It's in STORAGE. It's basic safety folks. A loaded gun, even in your gun cabinet, is an invitation to disaster. Loaded and chambered guns should be limited to the guns you have a rational desire to HAVE loaded. The rest should be UNloaded. There's no good reason to HAVE them loaded, and a thousand to NOT have them loaded.

This is 99% common sense. Why open yourself to an easily prevented accident (especially with long-guns with no drop safety) for no good purpose?

Because we have the ridiculous "No guns in bars" law in WA (As though the people to whom we'd like this to apply will have ANY concern for the law) I can make an exception to this for the gun you leave in yur locked glove box. -Seems reasonable to me at any rate. Leaving you UNSECURED loaded Glock Or cocked& Locked 1911 in a car with YOU THREE-YEAR-OLD sitting alone in the car is another story altogether.

It's common sense and some basic grasp of how firearms function. I;m really sick of seeing people sit here defending unsecured, loaded 1911's around unsupervised small children as though this is some kind of 2A issue. It's not.

The difference between me and the "secured gun" fanatics is that I grasp the difference between loaded and not, safeties an dnone, and the triviality of defeating a safety on every gun made since 1900.

The antis want your guns secure under all circumstances. I just want you criminally prosecuted if your kid gets your loaded gun and kills themselves or someone else with it because you couldn't be arsed to lock the sucker up or keep it unloaded with ammo not easily accessible to small children.

 

[Botte Hork]

Misterbill, I wish I could like your post twice.

There's a difference between the anti-gun "guns are evil and need to be locked up at all times" and your common sense (an infected expression in 2A circles, but applies very well) to safely handling firearms.


When I read Massad Ayoob's "gunproof your children", it confirms the idea that kids are smart enough to work around a problem that's physically too heavy, like a slide with a heavy spring, or a sturdy 1911-type safety. Just use the edge of a table, pretty much. Kids have all the time in the world to figure these things out, especially if weapons are left laying around (or just easily accessible) like that.

 

[Certaindeaf]

If you don't have your chamber clear, how else will you make poopy pants if you can't rack one into your Raven, all 870 style?