The amount of people who don't carry a weapon with a round in the chamber is simply astounding. In this first part of a two part series, I'm going to cover why you should carry a gun that is locked, cocked and ready to rock. Next time, I'm going to explain why I believe some people don't carry with a round in the pipe.
But first, let me explain the reason for my willingness to cover such a topic. This came about because I wrote an article for guns.com, that went over how to re-holster your weapon so that you don't accidentally shoot yourself. Yes, this sort of information should be common knowledge. But, for some reason, people still shoot themselves in the leg. There was a lot of debate about whether or not carrying with a round in the chamber is a good idea in the comments on their Facebook page, so I figured I'd dive into the topic,here.
I want to say right now, that if you don't carry with a round in the chamber, my goal is not to offend you. My goal is to help you realize something, so please read on.
As a rule of thumb, police officers are taught that an attacker (AKA a bad guy) can successfully make up enough distance to over power someone in under 21 feet. Why? Because the “average” attacker can usually make up 21 feet in less than 2 seconds. Some guys are even faster than that.
What this means, is that by the time you realize your life is in danger, your assailant is already upon you with a knife or other means of deadly force. Unfortunately for you and I, it also takes anywhere from .7-1.5 seconds for your body to react once it realizes that it is in danger. So, if you pull your gun from its holster and there isn't a round in the chamber what are you going to do?
Oh I know. You could say: “um, excuse me, sir? Could you wait a moment while I draw my weapon, send a round home and then proceed to defend myself against you?”
Come on, man! If he is on you and you still need to chamber a round, you're as good as dead. Or, let's pretend I'm Joey Biden, about to give some fantastic gun advice: If your handgun is heavy enough, just throw it at your attacker in an attempt to ward him off! (that was a joke, people)
In all actuality, what will likely happen is you'll draw your weapon and your attacker will either turn around and run like a dog with his tail tucked, or he'll continue on in his pursuit regardless of the outcome. Why? Because that's how criminals think.
It gets worse. You see, a majority of attacks don't take place with an assailant starting at the 21 foot mark. More often than not, this knucklehead will be just a few feet from you, taking even less time for you to react appropriately.
Therefore, the only real way to mitigate the possibility of someone being successful in an attack, is to carry a handgun with a round in the chamber. That way, all you have to do is pull the gun from its holster, flip off the safety (if so equipped and you decide to use it, which, I don't use mine) assume your proper shooting stance (if you have time) and put that sucker down.