Guys,
For another project, I'm writing a series of training essays. They are not necessarily super advanced, most are targeted towards new(ish) shooters who are trying to seek out the truth in the midst of all of the noise and poor training out there.
Here's a draft of one that I wanted to post here after reading some of the arguments about chambered/unchambered. Frankly, I didn't realize that carrying unchambered was popular at all, but I've run into a LOT of students and friends that are currently carrying unchambered. I can't say how vehemently I'm against this but I try to do it with respect. I think they want to do the right thing, they just haven't been taught properly or learned enough. Hence, the following essay.
(I thought about posting it in the Carry Forum but I think it belongs more here. If I'm wrong, some Mod move it. Or I can post it there as well).
INGO is anything but timid so if you agree or disagree, feel free to be as blunt/harsh as you want to be. It's all good.
************************************************************************************
Unchambered Means Unprepared
By Expatriated
New students often express uneasiness at carrying their handgun with a round in the chamber. When asked why, they generally respond with some variation of the excuse that the gun is dangerous if carried like that. To this I respond (probably a bit too sarcastically) “Well, I certainly hope it’s dangerous! After all, that’s why we carry them!”
But I have to stop and remember that I was there at one point myself. When I became a baby police 20 years ago, I underwent an outstanding firearms training program at the academy. (At that time, I didn’t have enough perspective to appreciate just how good that training actually was—thank you, Sgt. Avery!) Digging back through the cobwebs, I can distinctly remember the day they came into class and handed out the guns. A brand new Smith and Wesson 4046. It was basically a boat anchor that was also capable of firing .40 cal bullets. But more germane to our discussion, it had no external safety. I was no stranger to firearms at the time, having grown up hunting. I had not however, had any self-defense training with firearms and there is a world of difference. If you flub the safety on your shotgun in the snowy Pennsylvania woods, the worst that can happen is you don’t fill your buck tag that winter. If you flub the safety in a gunfight, your spouse may be left shopping for flowers and a black outfit. Thus began a pathway of learning how to carry a defensive handgun in the proper, i.e. dangerous, condition.
The question arose among us police recruits that since there is no safety, should we carry the weapon unchambered? Trust me, our instructors made my above sarcastic remark seem positively Hallmark-like in comparison with the answers they so generously provided us. Unless cleaning the weapon, handing it to someone or dry practicing, we were instructed to always, always, always carry a round in the chamber. This felt strange, even scary at first. Over time and with training, I realized that they were 100% right and soon, NOT carrying a round in the chamber felt scary. Because I came to know the truth—unchambered means unprepared.
The underlying fear and uneasiness with carrying a chambered is a result of a lack of knowledge and a lack of training. The lack of knowledge comes from not understanding how the firearm functions. The lack of training generates a lack of confidence which gives rise to fear. The solution is not to carry your weapon unchambered, the solution is to increase your knowledge and training. So, let’s get to it.
One of the more common fears is that if the gun falls out of the holster and hits the ground, it’ll go off. This is false. Most modern handguns have safeties built into them, even if there is not an external safety switch. Some, I would argue, are all but useless. The trigger “safeties” commonly found on weapons like Glocks fall into this category. If something catches on the trigger, it’s probably also going to catch on the small piece designed to keep the trigger from being depressed, meaning the gun will, in all likelihood, fire.
However, there is another safety that is very useful, and understanding how it functions greatly improves our confidence in the firearm: the drop safety. It is so called because if you “drop” the weapon, the safety prevents the gun from firing. How this occurs is simple: there is (depending on the model and manufacturer) a bar or other piece of metal that sits between the firing pin (or striker) and the primer of the chambered round inside the firearm. This blocking piece prevents the firing pin from making contact with the round, thus keeping it from firing. Were one to hit the rear of the weapon, whether from an impact to the weapon, or from the weapon dropping and impacting the floor, the firing pin will hit only the metal bar or blocking device and not move forward to hit the round. It simple terms the pin can’t reach the round. And I have gone to arguably unwise extremes to test this.
While I do not suggest trying this at home or around impressionable police officers or Glock customer service reps, I once tested this safety in a rather unorthodox evaluation. I took a standard Glock 26, a tent peg and some very hard ground. Using the slide on the Glock, I proceeded to hammer the tent peg into the ground (careful to make sure muzzle was pointed in a safe direction). Although taking repeated hits, the gun of course did not go off. Each swing of the Glock was much more force than what would have been generated were it simply to have been dropped. Further inspection of the round in the chamber showed no indication that the striker had ever made contact with the primer, even slightly.
I have also been in class where a well-known firearms trainer famously drops his carry weapon on the ground from 6 feet to illustrate this internal safety. This is done to the horror of some, and to the envy of others-namely, the 1911 crowd.
We need to understand how something else works inside the gun to increase our confidence from a knowledge perspective. Except for some models like 1911’s and 1911-styled (Browning Hi-Power and the like), modern handguns are carried with their hammers “at rest”. Meaning that the weapon is not carried cocked, or with the hammer back. When one pulls the trigger, the firing pin or striker must first load up with energy, or be cocked. This is why these weapons are referred to as double-action handguns. Pulling the trigger generates TWO actions: it first makes the firing pin, striker or hammer go rearward (cocking) and then makes the firing pin, striker or hammer fall forward (firing). This is true for both semi-automatic weapons as well as double-action revolvers. (Some semi-automatics will stay in a position of single-action, i.e., cocked, after the first round is fired. But since no reputable instructor or agency recommends carrying the weapon in this condition, it is irrelevant to our discussion.) In fact, it is easier to illustrate this action with a revolver that has an external hammer. Many of today’s modern semi-automatics are internal, striker-fired weapons and may be difficult for the new shooter to observe these functions.
When one pulls the trigger on our revolver example, one can see the hammer move back to the rear. This action is loading up energy in the hammer. Physicists call this potential energy. Once the hammer and trigger travel far enough, the hammer is released (the aforementioned drop safety is disengaged), the hammer then falls forward with enough appropriate force to strike the primer on the chambered round and fire the gun. Physicists would call this forward motion kinetic energy.
What this means for our discussion is that there is no way that the gun will just “happen to go off” while we are carrying it in our holsters. It physically cannot happen because the gun is at rest, it is not cocked. The physics terms used above were intentional. When the gun is at rest and uncocked, there exists no potential energy. Therefore there exists no potential for the hammer to fall and fire the gun—the hammer is already forward.
Many times new shooters feel uncomfortable because they think the gun has the potential of firing spontaneously while they are driving down the road, sitting in church, or watching a movie, as if it is some sort of ballistic Sword of Damocles. Rest assured it does not have this potential. Think of it in terms of another firing device—the bow and arrow. Hold a bow in your hand and place an arrow in the appropriate firing position (nocked) but don’t draw the bow back. Is there any potential of the bow to just “happen to go off”, launching an arrow? Of course not. It is at rest. The bow has to be drawn back first. Your carry gun operates in the exact same way. There is no potential energy until pressure is applied to the trigger.
Training. Proper training instills the confidence that allows a person to carry the weapon properly, aka chambered. A thorough study and a steady diet of training in the four safety rules will overcome fear and bad habits.
Employing the logic that chambering a round might cause a negligent discharge means the shooter is focusing on the symptom and not the disease. If you have habits that are resulting in unsafe gun handling, then carrying an unchambered weapon is not the answer. Ingraining proper safety techniques is. After all, eventually you are planning on chambering a round at some point, right? If you are operating unsafely and improperly without a round in the chamber, chambering a round will never make you automatically more competent. It simply will not happen, particularly under stress.
Some say, what’s the difference? I’ll just chamber a round when I need to. I would argue you’ve garnered too much training from television and not enough from real-world, been-there, instructors. If you are carrying your weapon for self-defense, you should be training for that ill-fated day you are called upon to exercise deadly force to save a life: the gunfight. A gunfight is quick and dirty and chaotic. More than all of that though, it is a FIGHT! Someone is fighting you, most times at close range. And we are on the reactive end, meaning we are already behind. They have initiated the fight and they have a plan. Time is not our friend. We may have to move a loved one or a cover garment out of the way. We may have to defend ourselves with our support hand. Or extricate ourselves from behind a table. Or maybe the first shots in our direction incapacitated our support hand. Or any number of things. It is simply not wise for us to count on having the luxury of time and two hands to chamber a round once we are already in a fight. To say nothing of the potential for inducing a malfunction at the worst (and possibly the last) moment of your life.
The Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s victory strategy was often quoted as, “the firstest with the mostest”. I think that translates rather nicely to gunfights. It implies to win, you not only need the firepower, you need to employ it faster than the other guy. Working the slide to chamber a round provides no advantage whatsoever.
Think of it this way: If we could interview the bad guy and ask him how he wants us to come to the fight, chambered or unchambered, what do you think he’d say?
For another project, I'm writing a series of training essays. They are not necessarily super advanced, most are targeted towards new(ish) shooters who are trying to seek out the truth in the midst of all of the noise and poor training out there.
Here's a draft of one that I wanted to post here after reading some of the arguments about chambered/unchambered. Frankly, I didn't realize that carrying unchambered was popular at all, but I've run into a LOT of students and friends that are currently carrying unchambered. I can't say how vehemently I'm against this but I try to do it with respect. I think they want to do the right thing, they just haven't been taught properly or learned enough. Hence, the following essay.
(I thought about posting it in the Carry Forum but I think it belongs more here. If I'm wrong, some Mod move it. Or I can post it there as well).
INGO is anything but timid so if you agree or disagree, feel free to be as blunt/harsh as you want to be. It's all good.
************************************************************************************
Unchambered Means Unprepared
By Expatriated
New students often express uneasiness at carrying their handgun with a round in the chamber. When asked why, they generally respond with some variation of the excuse that the gun is dangerous if carried like that. To this I respond (probably a bit too sarcastically) “Well, I certainly hope it’s dangerous! After all, that’s why we carry them!”
But I have to stop and remember that I was there at one point myself. When I became a baby police 20 years ago, I underwent an outstanding firearms training program at the academy. (At that time, I didn’t have enough perspective to appreciate just how good that training actually was—thank you, Sgt. Avery!) Digging back through the cobwebs, I can distinctly remember the day they came into class and handed out the guns. A brand new Smith and Wesson 4046. It was basically a boat anchor that was also capable of firing .40 cal bullets. But more germane to our discussion, it had no external safety. I was no stranger to firearms at the time, having grown up hunting. I had not however, had any self-defense training with firearms and there is a world of difference. If you flub the safety on your shotgun in the snowy Pennsylvania woods, the worst that can happen is you don’t fill your buck tag that winter. If you flub the safety in a gunfight, your spouse may be left shopping for flowers and a black outfit. Thus began a pathway of learning how to carry a defensive handgun in the proper, i.e. dangerous, condition.
The question arose among us police recruits that since there is no safety, should we carry the weapon unchambered? Trust me, our instructors made my above sarcastic remark seem positively Hallmark-like in comparison with the answers they so generously provided us. Unless cleaning the weapon, handing it to someone or dry practicing, we were instructed to always, always, always carry a round in the chamber. This felt strange, even scary at first. Over time and with training, I realized that they were 100% right and soon, NOT carrying a round in the chamber felt scary. Because I came to know the truth—unchambered means unprepared.
The underlying fear and uneasiness with carrying a chambered is a result of a lack of knowledge and a lack of training. The lack of knowledge comes from not understanding how the firearm functions. The lack of training generates a lack of confidence which gives rise to fear. The solution is not to carry your weapon unchambered, the solution is to increase your knowledge and training. So, let’s get to it.
One of the more common fears is that if the gun falls out of the holster and hits the ground, it’ll go off. This is false. Most modern handguns have safeties built into them, even if there is not an external safety switch. Some, I would argue, are all but useless. The trigger “safeties” commonly found on weapons like Glocks fall into this category. If something catches on the trigger, it’s probably also going to catch on the small piece designed to keep the trigger from being depressed, meaning the gun will, in all likelihood, fire.
However, there is another safety that is very useful, and understanding how it functions greatly improves our confidence in the firearm: the drop safety. It is so called because if you “drop” the weapon, the safety prevents the gun from firing. How this occurs is simple: there is (depending on the model and manufacturer) a bar or other piece of metal that sits between the firing pin (or striker) and the primer of the chambered round inside the firearm. This blocking piece prevents the firing pin from making contact with the round, thus keeping it from firing. Were one to hit the rear of the weapon, whether from an impact to the weapon, or from the weapon dropping and impacting the floor, the firing pin will hit only the metal bar or blocking device and not move forward to hit the round. It simple terms the pin can’t reach the round. And I have gone to arguably unwise extremes to test this.
While I do not suggest trying this at home or around impressionable police officers or Glock customer service reps, I once tested this safety in a rather unorthodox evaluation. I took a standard Glock 26, a tent peg and some very hard ground. Using the slide on the Glock, I proceeded to hammer the tent peg into the ground (careful to make sure muzzle was pointed in a safe direction). Although taking repeated hits, the gun of course did not go off. Each swing of the Glock was much more force than what would have been generated were it simply to have been dropped. Further inspection of the round in the chamber showed no indication that the striker had ever made contact with the primer, even slightly.
I have also been in class where a well-known firearms trainer famously drops his carry weapon on the ground from 6 feet to illustrate this internal safety. This is done to the horror of some, and to the envy of others-namely, the 1911 crowd.
We need to understand how something else works inside the gun to increase our confidence from a knowledge perspective. Except for some models like 1911’s and 1911-styled (Browning Hi-Power and the like), modern handguns are carried with their hammers “at rest”. Meaning that the weapon is not carried cocked, or with the hammer back. When one pulls the trigger, the firing pin or striker must first load up with energy, or be cocked. This is why these weapons are referred to as double-action handguns. Pulling the trigger generates TWO actions: it first makes the firing pin, striker or hammer go rearward (cocking) and then makes the firing pin, striker or hammer fall forward (firing). This is true for both semi-automatic weapons as well as double-action revolvers. (Some semi-automatics will stay in a position of single-action, i.e., cocked, after the first round is fired. But since no reputable instructor or agency recommends carrying the weapon in this condition, it is irrelevant to our discussion.) In fact, it is easier to illustrate this action with a revolver that has an external hammer. Many of today’s modern semi-automatics are internal, striker-fired weapons and may be difficult for the new shooter to observe these functions.
When one pulls the trigger on our revolver example, one can see the hammer move back to the rear. This action is loading up energy in the hammer. Physicists call this potential energy. Once the hammer and trigger travel far enough, the hammer is released (the aforementioned drop safety is disengaged), the hammer then falls forward with enough appropriate force to strike the primer on the chambered round and fire the gun. Physicists would call this forward motion kinetic energy.
What this means for our discussion is that there is no way that the gun will just “happen to go off” while we are carrying it in our holsters. It physically cannot happen because the gun is at rest, it is not cocked. The physics terms used above were intentional. When the gun is at rest and uncocked, there exists no potential energy. Therefore there exists no potential for the hammer to fall and fire the gun—the hammer is already forward.
Many times new shooters feel uncomfortable because they think the gun has the potential of firing spontaneously while they are driving down the road, sitting in church, or watching a movie, as if it is some sort of ballistic Sword of Damocles. Rest assured it does not have this potential. Think of it in terms of another firing device—the bow and arrow. Hold a bow in your hand and place an arrow in the appropriate firing position (nocked) but don’t draw the bow back. Is there any potential of the bow to just “happen to go off”, launching an arrow? Of course not. It is at rest. The bow has to be drawn back first. Your carry gun operates in the exact same way. There is no potential energy until pressure is applied to the trigger.
Training. Proper training instills the confidence that allows a person to carry the weapon properly, aka chambered. A thorough study and a steady diet of training in the four safety rules will overcome fear and bad habits.
Employing the logic that chambering a round might cause a negligent discharge means the shooter is focusing on the symptom and not the disease. If you have habits that are resulting in unsafe gun handling, then carrying an unchambered weapon is not the answer. Ingraining proper safety techniques is. After all, eventually you are planning on chambering a round at some point, right? If you are operating unsafely and improperly without a round in the chamber, chambering a round will never make you automatically more competent. It simply will not happen, particularly under stress.
Some say, what’s the difference? I’ll just chamber a round when I need to. I would argue you’ve garnered too much training from television and not enough from real-world, been-there, instructors. If you are carrying your weapon for self-defense, you should be training for that ill-fated day you are called upon to exercise deadly force to save a life: the gunfight. A gunfight is quick and dirty and chaotic. More than all of that though, it is a FIGHT! Someone is fighting you, most times at close range. And we are on the reactive end, meaning we are already behind. They have initiated the fight and they have a plan. Time is not our friend. We may have to move a loved one or a cover garment out of the way. We may have to defend ourselves with our support hand. Or extricate ourselves from behind a table. Or maybe the first shots in our direction incapacitated our support hand. Or any number of things. It is simply not wise for us to count on having the luxury of time and two hands to chamber a round once we are already in a fight. To say nothing of the potential for inducing a malfunction at the worst (and possibly the last) moment of your life.
The Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s victory strategy was often quoted as, “the firstest with the mostest”. I think that translates rather nicely to gunfights. It implies to win, you not only need the firepower, you need to employ it faster than the other guy. Working the slide to chamber a round provides no advantage whatsoever.
Think of it this way: If we could interview the bad guy and ask him how he wants us to come to the fight, chambered or unchambered, what do you think he’d say?
