I carry hot everyday. Period.
If a credible threat somehow held your left arm how the hell are you supposed to rack the slide back?
Now I keep several handguns in my home without a round in the tube. My reason is simple, I have young kids. They are not strong enough to rack a slide back. So keeping mag/gun together with empty chamber at the house works for me right now.
do you have kids? or a wife?I understand that. I just don't worry about someone grabbing my left arm. Since I got back from Iraq in 2009, my head is on a swivel. That hyper awareness that you get being over there never went away.
I don't think the .5 seconds it takes to rack one is should be of grave concern. I say to each their own. I personally don't have one in the tube. I do know how long it takes me to get there and I'm comfortable with my decision.
Wish I could find the video compilation of surveillance video of people killed while trying to chamber a round in their gun. Carrying with an empty trigger is worse than not carrying a gun at all in my opinion and very dangerous. I know I won't be able to make you change your mind, but I wish I could.
I've thought about it recently. I keep having dreams where I'm trying to rack a round and my pistol jams. It's kinda weird because my pistol have never jammed. Not a single failure the whole time I've owned it.
It's not the half second it takes to chamber a round. It's that there are so many things that could go wrong trying to chamber a round under stress.
If you carried a revolver, would you feel the need for the hammer to be down on an empty chamber? Or worse, for the first cylinder to be empty?
I do get it. It's been a progression for me. I grew up in upstate NY and didn't buy my first pistol until I was stationed down here in 2010. I first carried in 2012. I felt pretty weird the first time. After I got out in 21013 I went to Africa for a year. As soon as I got back I got my GWL and now I carry everywhere I go. I'm sure I will be there soon.
It takes a long time to develop muscle memory. I still carry the same way that I did when I was 4 years old carrying a die cast mini Colt 1911 cap gun. IWB, 4 o'clock. I wore out so many pairs of elastic waist Kmart jeans I figured I'd just stick with what was most comfortable. I had ample opportunity to practice drawing on geese, deer, robbers, whatever with that thing.Hell with jamming, what if you have something in your hands, or you have something on one of your hands that prevents you from getting a firm grip and causes your hand to slip. What if in the moment of panic your fine motor skills quit working and you are unable to to successfully chamber a round?
I used to carry when I wasn't out and about in a Serpa holster. I had practiced drawing my gun from that holster thousands of times, it was second nature to me. One day while fishing I got excited about the prospect of shooting something (what I won't go into detail of), but in the excitement everything I knew failed on me. I about ripped my pants off trying to draw my gun from the holster without hitting the release on the holster. I wasn't even scared, just excited.
In pistol classes when I used to carry a 1911, under stress or excitement I either missed or forgot to disengage the thumb safety on my 1911 several times over the course of a couple of years as well. Keep in mind that I carried a 1911 for years and sweeping the safety was second nature for me, hell it still is, I sweep the non existent safety on my Glocks when I draw them to this day.
Now I won't carry in a holster that requires anything more than pulling the gun out, and I won't carry a gun that has a safety. No way in hell would I carry one without a round in the chamber.
Is there any other way?