Yes. Don't suppose I've ever gone grouse hunting with an empty chamber either for the same reason: stuff flies up in my face out of the blue, I'd best be prepared if want to do something about it. So while may never draw my ccw, if I did and "lost" there may well be no sitting around the stove later to laugh about my unpreparedness to shoot.
But fair enough, there lies some risk in this and it requires being mindful. To each his own.
p.s. I do wonder as to the "gained safety" of being in the habit of carrying an "empty" chambered firearm. Seems just one error in judgement/memory there could be every bit as dangerous. And why does one perceive it to be safer? Is the weapon's design or one's carry holster that bad, and if so, why have it?
Not criticizing so much as just not following the logic as applies to ccw.
sandcritter �
Condition 3 carry has the obvious downside that the firearm must be made ready before it can be used. For someone who finds themselves in a high risk environment this can have serious ramifications. That said, even a drawn weapon in Condition 0 or a Condition 1 carry method provide no guarantee as to the outcome of an event. Simply put, the method of carry is generally far less important than whether one is armed or not.
The other side of the coin is that no one has ever been shot by a gun with an empty chamber. Given that many unintentional discharges and subsequent injuries occur while loading or unloading the chamber or while drawing or holstering a gun with a loaded chamber, the benefit of Condition 3 is also obvious. Whether or not that benefit outweighs the disadvantage is a personal decision and I contend that there is no one right answer that applies equally to everyone.
For myself, I�ve chosen Condition 3 because I live in a low risk environment. People raise arguments about Rottweiler attacks, attacks by packs of wild dogs, car jackings, etc. Let me just say that when walking the neighborhood I�m more likely to beat a vicious dog with my walking stick than to shoot it and in 25 years I�ve yet to see or hear about any pack of wild dogs in the neighborhood. To my knowledge there has never been a car jacking in the area and, although I�m sure there have been various types of incidents at the local bar, it�s 3 miles from the house and I don�t go there. Speaking only for myself and particular situation, the advantages of a loaded chamber simply don�t outweigh the disadvantage of the increased potential for unintentional discharge. In the hundreds of times I�ve carried, never once have I felt the need to draw my weapon, let alone load the chamber. That is hundreds of times the potential for an accident has been avoided entirely, plus an equal number for each time the chamber had to be unloaded later. The fact is that in my case an unintentional discharge is far more likely than a shot fired in anger.
It may be that I am more sensitive to this than others because I carried a bullet fragment from a ricochet in my leg for 20+ years. Another time I bumped a nail gun while working in cramped quarters and gripped it more tightly to avoid dropping it - and thus buried a 2-1/2� nail in the other leg. At the range I�ve managed to drop the hammer on a live round in one of my lever action rifles when my thumb slipped, killing some dirt to the side of the target. Older Brother, who carries Condition 1 daily and has for years, put a hole in the floor of a car due to a thumb slip on a 1911. Human error aside, I�ve seen two incidents of unintentional discharges due to mechanical failures when the safety was released on firearms that had never been known to have problems before. Condition 3 eliminates the potential for any such incidents.
As with all things in life, the method and manner of carry is a personal choice that involves trade-offs. To suggest there is only one �right� way is, to my way of thinking, ignoring reality.
