This guy seems to know what he’s doing, but is carrying a handgun cocked and ready to go a good gun safety practice or not? In this case it didn’t work out so well for him.
Never smart to have a cocked pistol that’s not in your hand. The average trigger pull once a pistol is cocked is about 5 pounds, which is why his went off when he simply crouched.
First, AAAAGGHH! This didn’t happen far from me, although I didn’t hear anything about it.
Second, I have a CZ vz. 82. I don’t carry, but would prefer to not trust the safety. Generally it’s best to be cocked & locked with single actions. The CZ 82 a DA/SA, but the safety is a switch that slides up, locking the slide and sear. It seems like it could be accidentally removed when pulling it out of the holster. The safety also doesn’t move unless the hammer is up, so I’m not sure how that would work safe in DA.
It really comes down to opinion, and on here there are a lot of competing opinions. My CCW has no safety, but then is carried with no round chambered so it’s impossible for it to accidentally discharge. Others seem to feel perfectly happy walking around cocked and ready to fire. Folks in my category feel that most Bad Situations give you at least some warning, folks in the other category feel that most Bad Situations give you no warning. Whoever is correct is open to debate.
No, what is not smart is stuffing a gun down the front of your pants and pointing at your wedding tackle, or using an inside-the-waistband holster that doesn’t cover the trigger guard. Given that the majority of pistols available today are either double action w/out manual safety, or striker-fired weapons that are, for all intents and purposes, single action pistols with no manual safety, a Condition 1 pistol with modern firing pin blocking safety handled and carried in responsible fashion is no less safe than any other handgun. Responsible fashion includes carrying in a weapon-specific fitted holster and training to draw and come to ready without violating the Four Rules of Firearms Safety.
I think the poster in the linked forum is a bit of an idiot in a number of ways, but then I’m widely unsatisfied with the amount of training and diligence of most firearms owners, including and sometimes especially law enforcement officers.
Personally, if I were going to carry a weapon on my person for defense, I would want it to be ready to fire on draw. However, I wouldn’t normally keep weapons that are in storage or off-person chambered for additional safety (i.e. should someone find or grab it, they won’t be able to fire it by just pulling the trigger). Since I don’t routinely carry a firearm for defense the issue is academic for me, though if I were buying a pistol today a single action with frame-mounted safety would be my first choice, all things being equal. A firearm is a tool, albeit one that is a hazard to the user and others if not handled in a conscious, responsible manner.
Stranger
The guy in the link notwithstanding (or maybe “withstanding” … what the heck kind of word is notwithstanding anyway?), improper holster and etc.
Condition 1 (cocked and locked) is the proper way to carry quite a few guns, 1911’s for example (single action semi automatics). They are designed for it and have a 97 year track record to back them up. A proper holster keeps the trigger from being pulled, which is the only way short of massive and multiple mechanical failures that it’ll go off. The gun is not going to shoot the guy in the leg unless, and I can’t stress this enough, he pulls the trigger. Guns don’t just go off (very, very, very rarely, anyway), bumping the hammer against a branch isn’t going to set it off. There is really no reason to not carry a 1911 or similar in condition one.
Carrying a gun without a round in the chamber is nearly as useful as not carrying one at all, and chambering a round and then lowering the hammer on a live cartridge is a good way to shoot a hole in the wall and tear a large chunk of skin off of your thumb.
Some DA guns have a decocking lever to allow them to be carried with the hammer down, and since they are double action it makes sense to do this.
And of course Stranger got in first. I have to learn to type faster
Right, that was the way I always carried my 1911.
I never really understood the usage of “notwithstanding” myself.
Curiously, Jeff Cooper used to rail against the use of a decocker on a weapon so equipped, apparently ignorant of the fact that not only is lowering in hammer manually a hazard but not using the decocker to do so can bypass the standoff safeties on some pistols. (I believe his concern stemmed from a scenario in which a gun allegedly being decocked discharged against a suspect’s head, but this is obviously a violation of a number of rules, and probably a convenient retelling of the story that did not have the pistol handler’s finger on the trigger at the time of discharge.)
One does always appreciate backup. 
Stranger
Page 26 of the Colt MKIV Series 80/90 Owners Manual states, and remember that it was written in this modern law-suit happy (I can’t spell “litiganious” or whatever it is) society and not back in 1911, that while a empty chamber is preferred for general carry, Condition 1 (“cocked and locked”, or as Colt calls it “Mode 3”) is proper if the pistol might need to be used.
From Colt
In my opinion this doesn’t mean Colt is responsible if some idiot using a cloth bag for a concealed holster shoots his pecker off. Several safeties must be overcome and something has to pull the trigger at the same time. Hauling it out of a floppy bag with poor trigger discipline … there’s not a safety in the world that can overcome human idiocy. And yes, I’ve had a negligent discharge myself (I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of an accidental discharge, negligence is failing to follow proper safety procedures), so I’m not speaking from any pedestal here. I’ve done stupid things, but you have to violate all the safety rules to hurt someone.
- Treat all guns as if they are loaded unless you have personally verified.
- Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
- Always be sure of your target and beyond
If you always (as I did when I screwed up) keep the muzzle pointed at a safe backstop, only your hearing is going to be damaged. Growing up I heard “Don’t point guns at people” even when playing with plastic capguns, and I’ve taught my kids the same, adding “Keep your boogerhook off the bang switch”. Doesn’t matter if the gun is loaded or not if you’re not pointing it at yourself or others and you’re not touching the damn trigger.
Rant over. 
I carry a S&W M&P 9 mm compact in an open holster all the time. It has no external safety, and I *always *chamber a round before putting the gun in the holster. It would be foolish for me to carry without a round in the chamber.
If it is a quality gun, then it certainly has an *internal *safety. Which, IMO, is all that is needed.
I see absolutely no reason to have an external safety on a handgun. Long gun? Certainly. Handgun? No need for one.
I’ve explained numerous times before the logical reasons for me not carrying my CCW with a round in the chamber. I think the statement that one may as well not carry if one is carrying without a round chambered is not logical and not backed up by fact. What if I’m carrying on my walking trail, miles from help - is it really about the same as if I had no weapon? Really? What if I’m just going to the grocery store shopping? What if I’m just taking a long car trip somewhere? It’s really about the same? Every single seriously bad thing that’s ever happened to me in my life had a build-up that lasted from 10 seconds to several minutes, more than enough time to work a slide. That doesn’t mean that that’s how anything in the future will be, but then I try to let relaxed awareness and my “Spidey sense” to tell me when things are starting to get seriously fucked up. It’s a risk I balance with the risk of carrying a weapon with no external safety.
I have a Glock 26 and I fucking well know how it operates. It has no “safety” as I know it and I grew up with it, over 20+ years of firearms ownership, despite what the manual calls a “safety.” You can call a tail a leg and say a dog has 5 legs too. With my gun, if there is a round in the chamber, you pull the trigger, it fires. Every other gun I grew up with that had a “safety” (such as my Ruger P85 and Ruger Mark II pistol), where if it’s on, you pull the trigger, it doesn’t fire. Save the nitpicks for people who mix “clip” and “magazine”, and “bullet” and “cartridge”.
I can and have listed numerous reasons why it can make perfect sense to carry a firearm and not necessarily have it be chambered, and I’m not going to get into this again. Calling me in effect “foolish” on here for choosing to practice a higher level of firearms safety is insulting to me.
Sorry Una, I wasn’t responding to your post and frankly don’t care how you carry. The OP was about whether it’s safe or not. It is.
You can believe I was insulting you if you wish, this also I don’t care about.
Although I don’t think Crafter_Man was intending to insult you (he notes that “It would be foolish for me to carry without a round in the chamber,”) I agree that there is nothing wrong with carrying a weapon that is not in battery. There is no question that it reduces the chance of negligent discharge (assuming that you are diligent about making certain is it consistently unchambered) and is a far better safety precaution than the questionable choice of selecting a prohibitively high trigger weight. You are also correct that in the vast majority of defensive scenarios there is plenty of time to put the arm in battery, provided you are comfortable with the operation of the pistol in all conceivable conditions; the notion that having a CCW means walking around on a hair trigger, ready to draw on the McClaury brothers, is pretty much all hype.
If I were to carry a firearm in a way that is not secure against the body–in a bag, say–this is likely what I would do for reasons stated above. I would consider the same if carrying a Glock Safe Action or other DAO pistol without a safety (effectively Condition 0) in an IWB-type holster, although I think carrying these pistols in a duty or high ride pancake holster ready to fire is fine. However, this doesn’t mean that Condition 1 carry is dangerous or stupid, provided that one selects an appropriate holster and trains to the gun and clothing worn. I personally prefer single action pistols with external safety, mostly because that is what I was originally trained on (Browning Hi-Power) and it seems most functional to me. But I don’t think other types of action and modes of carry are wrong, as long as they provide adequate margin of safety against unintended discharge. Carrying a pistol in Condition 1 in a loose bag or open holster is, IMHO, begging an accident.
Stranger
A firearm carried for personal defense that’s not cocked (locked or unlocked) is going to be about as useful as a brick in a life-and-death situation. Chances are you’re not going to have time to cock it if your life is in danger. Even if it’s just one situation where you’re not going to be able to cock it, wouldn’t you rather be safe than not having to cock it? If you have a quality holster that covers the trigger and are competent and comfortable with firearms, there is nothing dangerous or dumb about carrying it cocked and locked.
I carry a Glock 19 concealed that’s always cocked and unlocked (Glocks only have internal safeties) and considering thousands of police officers do the same, I’ve had no problem with it.
Una:
I didn’t mean any disrespect with my post. If you’re more comfortable carrying without a round in the chamber, then by all means do it. A gun without a round in the chamber is still 1000X better than not having a gun at all.
Having said that, though, I must say that I am active on numerous gun and personal defense-related boards, and *all *the real-deal/no-BS experts are in agreement that a round should be carried in the chamber of a personal-defense weapon. Their arguments are based on facts & logic that ***cannot ***be disputed.
I want to note that I’ve not disparaged or wagged my finger at anyone’s choice to carry locked and cocked or whatever. Everything I’ve read of Bobtheoptimist, Crafter Man, and Stranger on a Train’s posts on this board says to me that they’re responsible, knowledgeable, careful gun owners who know what’s best for them. Of course Bob now says in effect he doesn’t give a shit what I think, but nonetheless I do not think he’s being unwise or acting untoward in any way.
I apologize if I’m defensive on this, but since I was the only one in this thread who espoused my POV on empty chamber, it seemed pretty clear that the comments were rebutting my POV.
On preview, I see now that my firearm is “about as useful as a brick” because all it takes is one life-or-death quick-draw situation, and it’s all over. 
Thanks for explaining, Crafter my Man.
If I didn’t carry with an unloaded chamber, I wouldn’t carry, and then it would truly be useless.
Totally agree… as I mentioned above, carrying a gun w/o a round in the chamber is a lot better than having no gun at all.
But while I’m at it, here’s some friendly advice, and you’re certainly free to dismiss it: spend some time investigating ***why ***you fear carrying a gun with a round in the chamber, and then work toward resolving this fear. You don’t need to answer this question. But I’m hoping that you’ll at least give it some thought.
I know why - I fear something accidentally catching the trigger and causing a discharge, killing someone, leading to a civil suit which demolishes my net worth to the level I had when I was 7 years old, and of course the moral stain which will haunt me, leading me to drinking and an early pauper’s grave.
Part of this fear is because my weapon is not in a “good” holster, it’s in a compartment in my handbag. The reason for this is I’m 5’5" and 120 pounds, and it’s impossible to hide a Glock 26 in business attire. Now I’ve opened myself up to the potential criticism of having a gun in a handbag…