Do you carry more than one?

[ok41]

I only have one spare tire on each of my vehicles, and don't really expect to use the one spare. Two would require too much space. As to carry weapons, I'm old and scrawny, and tried two carry guns but my pants kept fallin' down.

On a serious note, the old man's concept of ccw is simply that my small light s&w 642 is quite often forgotten about even though it's always within simple reach. Back up weapons and serious heavy firepower are expected with those who are quite often in harms way by choice of vocation. But then opinions are what make horse races fun.

 

[bigmike45]

I also carry the PT-145 usually as a BUG behind my 1911. I carry it as my primary when I cannot carry my 1911. When I carry the PT-145 as a primary, I then carry my KelTec P11 as a BUG. I very seldom carry only one gun.

tex

 

[Green Lantern]

Paranoia! It's that simple.

Ahh, nothing like condescension from a fellow "gun enthusiast."

I've learned though, that being a gun enthusiast does NOT make one a "self-defense enthusiast."

But with THAT said, I can count the number of times I've carried a BUG on one hand and still have some fingers left over. Maybe it's living in a "pretty" nice place, coupled with some laziness on my part. But I have better things to do than look down my nose at others and cast judgement for their habits.

christcorp, maybe you'd like to tell a man like Massad Ayoob that HE'S paranoid? Though if you actually read some of his writings, and/or some of the case accounts he references in them where back-up guns saved the lives of cops AND "civvies," you wouldn't find that so easy to do....?

 

[Rexster]

My Jeep has a spare tire, too.

It is very normal for me to have two handguns on my person when off the clock, and three to four when on duty as an LEO, the fourth being a shotgun or carbine. The foundation, my "primary" handgun, is one of my Ruger SP01 snubbies. Another term might be "always" gun, which I believe gunwriter Sheriff Jim Wilson coined. From 2002 to 2004, when my duty pistol (while in uniform) was a box of Wheaties, er, I mean a Glock 22, I found it was easier to conceal two SP101 snubbies than one Glunck. (Until 2002, I had generally carried only one gun when on my own time, generally a 1911.) Two snubbies are nice; they can share spare ammo, and can be carried so that one is more accessible when seated, and the other more accessible when standing. A spare snubby is also the fastest reload or malfunction clearance drill. During one advanced shooting class, when we were using the "hot range" concept, meaning our guns were always kept loaded, when my Glunck malfunctioned, the pocketed SP101 was immediately deployed, with no conscious effort on my part, to fire two quick shots to end the scenario. I had never trained to drop the primary, but there it was, on the ground; my subconscious mind seemed to tell my hands to ditch the Glunck and deploy a real gun. Speaking of malfunctions, I once upon a time completed a shift of duty, and got home to find my S&W M58's mainpring had cracked into two pieces, which were rattling around inside the grip frame. THAT will make a guy always want to carry a spare! I could ramble on for quite a while about why I like to have two handguns available, but the bottom line is that it just feels right, and comforting. Oh, and about the "paranoia" comment, well, hmm, on second thought, I will not dignify that with a response.

 

[BobMcG]

Hardly ever and next to never. I can count the times I've carried two in a quarter century + on on one hand.
I'm not an LEO nor a retired LEO. I don't live my life putting myself into high risk situations as best I can at least to the best of my knowledge. I think the odds are in favor of me not having to use a deadly weapon against a deadly threat in all likelihood in my lifetime. Am I reasonably prepared to do so in the extremely rare chance I do have to use such deadly force? Certainly. Am I right or am I wrong in my line of thinking? I don't think a person is right or wrong in choosing to carry more than one firearm. I think it's more a matter of what makes one feel comfortable with their decision. I feel comfortable knowing I have the one handgun near by.

 

[Geno]

My Tactical Shooting and Advanced Tactical Shooting instructor carries 5 pistols/revolvers. He encourages the carrying of (at minimum) 2 pistols, and that the magazines be interchangable between them:

2 .45 ACP 1911s (4.25" & 3")
2 9MM Glocks (G17 & G19C)

Note: If you do this, you MUST carry magazines that fit the larger of the two. For example, do not carry back-up magazines for the G19...they are too short for the G17! Carry only magazines for the G17; they will fit both pistols. If you don't pay attention, your mags will come up "short".

 

[bnolsen]

Good argument for carrying a BUG weak side.

BG or idiot notices you are carrying (they shouldn't)!

Idiot or BG decides he wants it.

Solution: Use primary hand to force the primary weapon into the holster, use BUG to waste the idiot.

How likely this is to happen, I have no clue. I didn't make this up, the former police firearms trainer who ran my conceal carry course mentioned the above as the best reason to carry a BUG.

 

[samtechlan]

Massad Ayoob has said that he carries two J frames on ocassion. I can see the logic. Two J frames or a J frame and a Seecamp are easier to carry than one big heavy gun. Since revolvers are also slower to reload it makes sense to carry a BUG. I am considering carrying my 637 as a backup to the 642.

 

[FMJMIKE]

I carry a Glock G-19......It doesn't need a back-up !!!

 

[hemiram]

A friend of mine got into it with a woman about something minor where he was working, and a short time later, husband walks in, acting like he's just a regular customer. Suddenly, takes a roll of quarters and blasts my friend in the temple, and when he went down, he grabbed his gun out of the holster. Luckily, my friend carried a backup, and got it out of his holster, and the husband froze as soon as he saw it. The cops came and carted the hubby away, who seemed shocked that he was going to jail. My friend had to get 6 stitches. I know 4 people who were whacked in the head with a roll of quarters. All of them went down, and one of them was out cold for about 30 seconds.

 

[fletcher]

Once in a while I'll forget to remove the NAA from my pocket while putting on a larger pistol, but I really can't think of a time I intentionally carried more than one.