i have read where it it is not smart to carry with one already in chamber. so with that in mind was going to get my wife a revolver to carry. only reason was when she is with our 17 month old she wouldnt be able to "rack" an auto back while holding our baby, but with a revolver she could just grab and shoot. but what would be the difference in letting her carry my kel tec 380 with one already in chamber. both situations it would be grab and shoot. correct me if i am wrong on this. any advise is appreciated.
I carry my P3AT with one in the chamber all the time. The P3AT has a pretty stiff trigger pull. The chances of it going off unintentionally are about a million to one. That is a great little self defense gun she could keep in her purse or even in her pocket.
I carry a 1911 with one in, 8 below and cocked & locked. There are enough redundancies in the safety that it's safe, but I still check the thumb safety frequently. The Israeli's teach the empty chamber technique and racking upon drawing. Personally, I don't like that.
Kel tec is fine to carry with one chambered (it has a positive firing pin block). Most modern autoloaders and revolvers are designed to be carried full up with all chambers loaded/round chambered (check your owners' manual) with a notable exception being the historical replicas--mostly Colt SAA clones (with no transfer bar and when the hammer is down the firing pin rests directly on a cartridge primer which means they'd go "boom" if the hammer was struck somehow). These MUST be carried with no round in the chamber under the hammer in order to be safe (making them effectively 5-shots). NAA Mini-revolvers have a special procedure for carrying loaded--locking between cartridges--and the bottom line is read the manual to determine how your particular gun operates.
If you need to use your gun you'll likely be under stress and find you have less time than you thought. With a 1911, Cocked and Locked is usually the ONLY way to carry safely and effectively (differing thoughts on storage); with others it's usually with round chambered and safety device (if so equipped) engaged -- with no manual safety like the Glocks, Kel-Tec, Kahr, most Sigs, H&K USP, etc. it's round chambered and decocked if applicable. Interestingly enough, when I was in the AF we were carrying the M9's (or it was policy to carry them) with round chambered and decocked/safety OFF (i.e. we were using the external safety as a simple decocking lever). The Beretta is fine and safe to carry this way--the firing pin has a positive block like most autoloaders which doesn't release until the trigger is depressed--but the manual safety gave an additional level of safety to properly trained indivuals and also has prevented in other scenarios a BG from getting the gun into action if a BG gets ahold of it. If I had a Beretta 92 (or other TDA with an easily reached safety like the Smiths, etc.) I'd probably be carrying it decocked with safety ON.
Most ALL modern firearms are required to pass safety tests for dropping, etc. (and if you drop a gun I'd advise to just let it fall--numerous accidents have happened grabbing for a falling gun with the trigger getting depressed somehow) and are plenty safe to carry with round chambered.
Almost EVERY accidental discharge has actually been a "negligent discharge" where the gun went bang when the trigger got depressed somehow; exactly what a gun is supposed to do.
Good luck and Cheers.
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God gives us free will; the statist tries to take it away
personally i think its kinda stupid not to have one in the chamber.
disregarding all the " timing" issues people will talk about , from what i remember carrying without one in the chamber was used to try and improve safety numbers which it had absolutely no effect on .
i have heard of 1 case where an officer drew his weapon and tried to fire and it ended his life because he was shot 3 times in the chest while he was looking at his firearm . Upon investigation ( watching the bank video and investigating the area ) they found that he did not have one in the chamber.
btw for a pregnant woman i definitely think a revolver is a good way to go ( assuming you trust her mood swings while pregnant , enough for a firearm at all).
All of my autos have one in the chamber and a full magazine. If you ever need to use your gun to protect yourself time is of the essance and there is no room for error.
If you've got a semi auto that you can't trust with a round in the pipe you need to relagate that POS to range use only and get something you can go to work with in a hurry.
I've seen some folks who were pretty quick with the draw and rack method, but all of them were faster on target with a round chambered.
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"The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is arrogance" Einstein
I agree with other posters, carry with one in the chamber &, in the case of your Kel-Tec, rely on the long trigger pull as the safety. However, one bit of caution regarding how she carries. If in a purse or a pocket, it should be in a holster which covers the trigger, so it can't be accidently triggered by other items snagging on the trigger.
