[PH/CIB]

I carry a Glock for the reason it has no safety to take off or forget and it is the lightest high capacity reliable combat accurate handgun,,,all the others though better in some departments are heavier or have less capacity or have safeties.

A handgun if carried in a holster that covers the trigger guard should be safe to carry with safety off,,,however that being said when I carry a Browning High Power or 1911 it is always cocked and locked with the safety on,,,on a DA/SA pistol I never use the safety if the handgun has one,,,although the arguement that the safety could accidentally be put on leaving me trying to fire a handgun that I thought was off safety is valid so it might be better to practice taking off the safety on the draw whether the handgun has one or not or whether the safety is on or not,,,and if you do this I suppose you might as well be using the safety since you are automatically taking it off whether it is on or not or if the handgun even has one.

I suppose the best practice if you carry and practice with a lot of handguns is to practice on the draw sweeping your thumb down to take off the safety whether the handgun has one or not,,,however that will not work on handguns where the safety has to be swept up. While I own many different types of handguns and rifles and shotguns and am familiar on how to use all of them,,,I only carry one type of handgun on a regular basis.

Rifles and shotguns are a different story,,,while I hate safeties due to some combat experiences,,,and I have many times walked point with no one in front of me but the enemy and the rifle on full auto,,,it is not a good practice for a civilian to get into...You do not carry a rifle or shotgun in a holster or scabbard with the trigger protected and anything can get into the trigger guard and set the firearm off,,,brush, twigs, items you are carrying on yourself or in your vehicle for example.

I only had problems with a safety when everything went into slow motion in a firefight and actually there was no problem with the safety while it seemed like slow motion everything was actually happening at light speed. A safety would probably only get you killed or wounded if you forgot to take it off, and that is probably much more remote a possibility than having an accidental discharge by not using a safety and killing or wounding yourself or someone else,,,so it probably makes more sense to use the safety.