I received a PM yesterday from a person who is/was a brand new member and has/had zero posts.
I'd tried to send that person a response to state I would be addressing his question publicly but the user is no no longer active (?!).
Below is the PM in it's entirety...
Quote:
I read the CCW thread on NASIOC that the argument was made against carrying concealed withOut a round in the chamber. The story there was a guy beaten by an attacker, but when he pulled his CCW the attacker stopped. Fortunately for the CCWr he did not need to shoot - because there wasn't a round in the chamber.
My question to you: I have a .40 S&W There are no safeties (except an extension to the trigger to add further distance for the pull). I have considered carrying israeli style for the safety.
Thoughts? comments?
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My response:
Carrying a handgun with no round in the chamber, hammer down and the magazine otherwise full, or cylinder if it's a revolver, is referred to as being in 'Condition 3'.
It has become to be known as "Israeli Carry" only because in the early days of the IDF they were given surplus arms by NATO countries toward use in establishing a police force and military. The handguns in specific were of all manner of sort and function and at that time they had no base type of handgun to centralize around. Further in those days drop safeties and now modern handgun manufacture methods were not the norm as they are today.
Beggers cannot be choosers.
So as a manner of training and practical application in those early days all armed personnel carried their handguns as Condition 3 exclusively, which became known as 'Israeli Carry'. It was the best they could do in those times for themself. Further world wide this was normal because 40 yrs. ago drop safeties and such were not normative.
FFWD to the current and _modern_ times.
Over the last 20 yrs. drop safeties have become standard items in handguns along with lightweight low inertia firing pins and heavy firing pin springs which also act to reduce if not eliminate issue with guns 'going off' upon being dropped. Further today we even now have handguns that have no hammer at all and are internally activated by a striker. Glock, S&W Sigma and M&P series pistols, Springfield Armory XD amongst very many others are this way today. Modern. Normal.
So with that background out of the way, lets look at C3/Israeli carry in the modern world today.
First of all no law enforcement officers carry this way at all, anymore. Why? Because if they did they would be doing nothing but reducing their officer survivability odds...greatly.
Also BGs don't carry this way anymore and haven't since like the 80s....when modern guns started coming out being completely safe to carry hot in 'Condition 1' with one in the chamber and the hammer down (double action guns) or hammer back such as with single action only guns like the 1911.
When under stress with Deebo and O-Dog in your face drawing down on you with fists, knives, or there own handgun(s). How effective do you think you would be drawing, charging your sidearm which is to manually rack the slide, then bring the weapon to bear...and get beat/stabbed/shot, to die?!
Why would you do this? Especially when there is no good reason at all to do so.
Now if ones concern is for fear of their own specific handgun and how it might just 'go off'. Well that fear is not born from rationality nor reality. It comes like most other fears from ignorance. Being ignorant and unaware of how your handgun, a mechanical device, functions and _does not_ function.
Not being ignorant is the key fix toward fears in general and definitely in specific to this Israeli Carry practice, as applied to modern design and modern built firearms.
Oh and I have run into some folks in years past who thought/assumed that C3/Israeli Carry is the cool and 'tactical' way to carry because well that's what Walker Texas ranger does and some other jive ass actors on TV and in movies. Yeah, uh huh. Okay. Not.
That's TV. Burce Willis took down a whole German assault team by himself in bare feet with no short and using a single pistol with like two magazines plus a borrowed MP5. You gonna believe that crap too? Of course not. So then why run with Walker Texas Ranger Chuck Norris style garbage too? FTL.
Bottom line is if you don't or can't feel comfortable enough to carry in anything but Israeli Carry mode then either you need to better educate yourself toward how your handgun of choice actually works...or you need to invest a few hundred bucks in a modern handgun and leave grandpa's WW2 vintage forty five or .38 Super in the safe as a piece to look at and run on the range only.
Get on to these streets though and half step like that. Deebo and O-Dog will own you and laugh as they remove grandpa's pistol from your quivering if not still hand as you're laid out on the ground trying not to go to the light.
Oh and below are two real world this is not Hollywood videos of how quick ish does IRL go down and shows with clarity why thinking you'll have time and both hands to draw, charge the weapon, take aim, and fire is just not practical in these modern times.
New Smyrna Beach Medicine Shoppe shooting (no time available but to draw on the QT and fire. No racking the slide. No press checks. Not time, unlike in the movies)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDYX0ydDVgo
Omaha Von Mar Mall Injured Victim Speaks (Dude is hot in his hand and arm. Essentially that arm was rendered useless so again an attempt to draw in C3/Israeli Carry would be foolish and non-functional)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhhFo90s4Ss
- Janq