Please load your CCW...I didn't

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Wow, there must be more than 30,000,000,001 people on the planet, because I'm pretty sure there's been more than one instance of self defense with a pistol on the planet earth.
 
I posted a reply but for some reason it got zipped. I guess the 2nd amendment is the only one that means anything. Hmmmmmmmmm.

KenWP,

It did indeed get zapped. It was deleted because it was

1) Off topic for the thread at hand

2) Political

and

3) Provoked snarky responses, also deleted, including one from (I'm sorta ashamed to admit) yours truly (that stayed posted for about two minutes).

Posts which disappear here are an indication of a problem with the post- what some folks might call "a clue." Continued behavior along those lines is rather strongly discouraged. Next step is a vacation. If you'd like one, just toss out some more political stuff like complaining about the First Amentment after you just got through trashing those of us who choose to exercise their Second Amendment rights. It can be speedily arranged.

And in the future, if you have complaints you'd rather not have addressed in public, try using PMs...

Regards,

lpl
 
Well played, Lee: thanks for intervening and getting us back on track.

The purpose of my original posting was informative in nature, not to spark a debate as to the necessity of a CCW, so I'm not going down that path.

If only one person who reads what happened to me learns from that mistake, I'll consider this thread to have accomplished its original intent.

Regards,
DFW1911
 
Thanks, DFW1911.

There's a (I should say another) great article from Pat Rogers in the October issue of SWAT Magazine, titled "Bulletproof Mind." The opening photo in the article is of one of his student's wide body .45 pistol in a drop holster- with a gaping, empty magazine well. The photo was taken on the firing line AFTER the command "Make Ready!" had been issued.

"Make Ready!" means be sure your eyes and ears are on, your carbine is loaded and ready, your sidearm is loaded and ready, your electronic sight is turned on and properly adjusted, and you are ready to execute whatever range command follows.

Since there were TWO students on this particular firing line with gaping empty magazine wells in their pistols, naturally the first thing Rogers did was call for a pistol drill. Good instructors notice details. And some of them have a mild sadistic streak as well.

So, can you say, "Trainable moment?"

Brain farts happen. They happen to all of us. Keys get locked in cars and houses every day. Checkbooks get misplaced. Clothes get forgotten at the cleaners. Someone makes a trip to the grocery store for milk, and comes home with everything but milk.

But where firearms are concerned, we have to learn to live in the now when we are doing administrative procedures like unloading, cleaning and loading. We have to be able bring ourselves to complete focus on what we are doing to the exclusion of any distractions, at least for the short period of time it takes to accomplish whatever task we are doing. While the goal Rogers and many other trainers seek to set for their students is the achievement of what's called "unconscious competence," IMHO we need to perform the administrative basics at a conscious, focused and deliberate level.

"Unconscious competence" is what saves your bacon in a gunfight, when things go to hell in a handbasket. If that happens to you, you need to be able to maintain target focus and threat awareness, and you need to be able to run the guns without having to fumble or look down. The pressure is on, the adrenaline is pumping, fingers turn into sausages and nothing wants to go right. Your much-loved, carefully selected, fastidiously maintained equipment seems to turn against you. The reason I push people so hard to get professional training is that this is exactly what happens in training when things go well. You do not need to experience this godawful set of sensations for the first time when your life is on the line. A bit of embarrassment on a flat range somewhere is a small price to pay compared to that risk, I think.

Paying attention to the administrative basics is what keeps us from having a click when we needed a bang, or worse, from putting a hole someplace we didn't expect to. Avoiding that sort of thing is worth shifting to full focus and living in the now for long enough to make sure those things don't happen. It only takes a few seconds...

Stay Safe, friends,

lpl
 
My procedure is simple; the only time my carry gun doesn't have a round in the chamber is when I am cleaning it, or when I am changing ammo for a practice session/match. The cleaning session follows the practice session. At ALL other times, there is a round in the chamber.

There is a lot less to screw up that way. I don't see the benefit of loading/unloading/checking/unchecking/presschecking/rechecking every night and every morning. More things to do = more things to screw up. I finish cleaning, and load the pistol. At that time I satisfy myself that there is a round in the chamber via a double check: 1) The magazine is depleated by one round, and 2) the loaded chamber indicator shows a loaded chamber. Under sufficient light I can see the shine of brass around the extractor as well.

I then don't futz with it until I have a good reason to do so... that reason is next month's match, 99% of the time.
 
K-I-S-S

All my guns are loaded, one in the chamber. (Empty guns kill people, doncha know).:evil:
*off topic* I'm continually impressed with Mr. Lapin's responses and guidance.:)
 
little more veer, Lee, feel free to zap it if needed. But I live in one of lowest crime areas in the nation. I've come home to a burglary in progress...unarmed. I'm between them and the doors. They're between me and the hunting guns.

Won't happen again. I go armed continuously for there is no way to tell when and where a weapon will be needed.

That old saw about it's better to have one and not need it, than to need one and not have it? Well, I've needed one and didn't have one. It won't happen again.
 
I don't carry a firearm, but when/if I do, I would always check my gun before I head out. Not just swing open the cylinder then close it.

I would clear the cylinder, rotate it and close it check the function of the action, visually inspect the bore, cartridges and empty cylinder, visually check the exterior for rust or breaks, reload, whatever safety methods you do prior to holstering (half cock, un-cocked, closed on empty chamber, etc), holster.
 
I believe Ronald Reagan once pointed an empty 1911 at a guy who was bothering a woman. Mr. Reagan was inside the building and leaned out the window and told the guy to shove off. Sometimes the mere presence of a weapon is enough...but I would hate to count on that because an unloaded weapon, if the bluff is called, is merely a poorly designed club.

As for KenWP, I am in Law Enforcement and have been to numerous homicide scenes...and most did not involve a firearm (lots of blunt force and stabbings). I would rather show to a scene with a dead BG laying in the dirt than see an innocent citizen have their life snuffed out prematurely.
 
Chances of you ever needing the gun for anything but a paper weight are around 1 in 30 billion so it actually is just a extra peice of weight to carry around.
Your math is seriously flawed. Firearms are used in self defense several million times per year, often without firing a shot. With a country of 300 million, that ends up being somewhere between 1 in 100 and 1 in 300 on an annual basis. On a daily basis that would be somewhere between 1 in 36,500 and 1 in 109,500. In round numbers, the odds imply that I may need to pull it once in somewhere between ten and thirty years.

However, those are only the odds, and odds are prediction of future events by reviewing past occurences.
In reality, it may be today, or it may be never.

Every thread that asks the question "have you ever..." seems to indicate that about half of the people who carry regularly have had occasion to draw at least once.

More importantly, the odds not the same as the stakes...

I find it hard to believe the post on this. People actually think they are going to need a firearm and are prepared for useing it. It's fine to carry a gun once in a while just to say you can but to really think its needed is parinoid to an extreme.

I find it difficult to reply in a manner that is consistent with THR's mission statement. Let me just say that if it walks like an ostrich...;)
 
Phew! So there is a reason I pull the slide back just a bit to verify there is a round in the pipe, then drop, check, and reinsert my magazine! I thought I was just OCD! Sometimes I feel silly doing it. I guess I just have a good habit, not a compulsion!

-Jim
 
I was carrying a FN 5.7 one day (only one day too), gun has a mag disconnect rendering it inoperable without a mag. I got out of the car, went in the store, back into the car and seen my mag laying on the seat. Seatbelt released it while it was holstered. 1 in the chamber and no way to shoot it.

Also, based on the odds and statistics comments above.....

Statistics are only an accurate portrayal of history. They along with odds have zero to do with anyone's current situation. Because you walk out the door everyday without a gun, have never needed a gun is like saying you run or eat well to prevent a heart attack. Whats the chances or odds of having a heart attack? Same with car or homeowners insurance.

Dont be lulled to sleep because you havent been maimed or robbed, yet.
 
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Wow I thought people were obsessive about safety for carrying an auto without a round chambered but an empty revolver tops it. Yeah it might be a good idea to make sure its loaded, never know when you gonna need it and everyone expects a revolver to go bang every time or at least the second time even if you have a bad round that doesn't go off.
 
I did this once about five or six years ago. In the middle of the day I walked to the car, got in, started it up and drove off. I left the house with an unloaded gun. About a block away, in a clairvoyant moment, I realized my mistake, turned around and went back inside to load up.

Somehow I was unharmed through the entire ordeal. ;)

Not sure how it all transpired now, but I suspect lazyness on my part.

I was tempted to keep going, but that would be disrespectful to Murphy. As long as I respect Murphy, Murphy has respected me.
 
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