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Old December 22, 2009, 04:16 AM   #59
GrigoriRasputin
Junior Member
 
Join Date: May 23, 2009
Location: Lexington, SC
Posts: 6
Always Carry With One In The Chamber

I am with the ones on here who see no good reason to carry a sidearm with an empty chamber, possibly excepting a gun that would be prone to AD if dropped or bumped. My answer to that is to get rid of it and get a better quality firearm for daily carry.

If it really makes you feel better, then do as you please. It is your decision and your life that may hang in the balance for such a nonsensical habit. Please, however, do not try and force your preference on those who carry with one in the pipe. I have two friends who, as I and most of my friends do, ALWAYS carry with one in the pipe. One has a brother who occasionally shares a residence with him and who has this fetish about carrying his SIG P-226 with an empty chamber. Both are in the Security field. What infuriates my friend (and rightfully so) is that his "empty chamber" brother will find his sidearm and examine it. Nothing wrong there but when he is finished examining it, he always leaves it where he found it with an empty chamber. That friend found himself in a deadly force situation about six months ago and thankfully, his chamber was loaded. Had his brother done his idiotic trick of leaving the gun with an empty chamber and my friend not had the presence of mind to find it before going on duty, he might be dead as he would not have had the opportunity to chamber a round. There is no way under his circumstances that he could have done this and gotten off a round in time to save himself.

Another friend's father is, as with that friend, an exceptionally bright and intelligent person. When his son gifted him with a GP-100 a few years ago, the father insisted on observing the archaic practice of carrying the gun on an empty chamber. Mind you, this guy is far more mechanically inclined and talented than I will ever dream of being, but he treated the gun as though it were a single-action Colt from yesteryear, even after having the folly of this explained to him. After several years of having this point hammered by my friend, he is finally carrying it with all six chambers loaded.

What is maddening, is that my friend has to remember to check his Glock 20 or Springfield 1911 any time his dad and he have been shooting or otherwise looking at guns because his dad does that same thoughtless trick of leaving his son's gun with an empty chamber, even though he knows his son does not carry with an empty chamber. Father or not, my friend has been much nicer about it than I would have been had ANYONE done this to me. What his father is not thinking about is that he may well sign his son's death warrant by leaving him with an empty-chambered gun if he finds himself in the same or similar situation as my friend the security officer did.

Again, if you want to carry with an empty chamber, do whatever makes you happy. Just don't endanger the lives of friends or especially family by being so thoughtless as to leave their gun with an empty chamber and not telling them.

Last edited by GrigoriRasputin; December 22, 2009 at 04:19 AM. Reason: correct spelling error
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