[jabotinsky]

I'm not carrying my M4A1 chamber empty while I wait for clues that it might be time to chamber a round along Route Tampa....On duty or off...the mode is the same and my life is no less important to me in a WalMart parking lot than it is in Khost or Diyalah.

If you're toting around an M4 you're already in a different world than me. For me as a civilian, life should be experienced differently when shopping at a suburban strip mall on a Sunday than when theoretically patrolling some insurgent haven in Iraq. It's about the quality of one's life, the richness, some of which is not fully realized when one's center is constantly drifting off in rumination over tactics to be used against mythical attackers that never appear.

Try to push off one or more people draw, chamber a round and fire during non-staged FOF training and it will become very evident that when your weapon clears the holster it better be ready to fire. Strong arm robbers seldom act alone and their lookout is not only there as a lookout, but as a backup to the primary actor.

What are the odds my home is going to be invaded by your demon ninjas that somehow silently creep past lights and dogs and over loose game pieces to have me need to push them off me rack my slide only to find out one's like an understudy to the main actor, oh wait, that sounds like tactical talk.... Anyway, what are the odds? Enough that I should walk around my house with a chambered sidearm at all times or merely rely on randomly placed weapons about my living space.

So I've really got to urge you NOT to rely on "but they can't rack the slide" as your sole layer of safety between them & a terrible tragedy.

A gift for the bloody obvious. Thanks, Counselor Troy...