Thursday, May 16, 2013

Rule #2

Rule #2 is essentially "Don't muzzle anything precious with your gun"

But when you put a gun in a holster is magically becomes something else.  It can be pointed at anything.  Rule #2 no longer applies.

Normally this is fine.  It actually is something else.  It is a holstered gun.  Assuming you have a good holster, it's triggerguard is completely protected and with a modern firearm in good condition it cannot go off once it is in the holster. 

People get cavalier with the holstered gatt.  I was thinking... should we?

4 comments:

Old NFO said...

No, rule 2 ALWAYS applies... Remember Rule 1

Marty said...

This is why I no longer use a Horizontal shoulder rig. I realized my kids were in the back seat...

Geodkyt said...

I respectfully disagree, while it is in a quality holster and not being messed with.

Guns don't just "go off" unless something presses the trigger, or it receives just the right angle of hard enough a whack to send a floating firing pin into the primer with enough force to fire.

Now, holstering and reholstering is a different story -- now you're futzing with the gun, and the trigger can get inadvertently pressed. Likewise, if you use a holster with an exposed trigger or a flimsy holster (nylon, suede, or old worn out thin leather), the trigger can get pressed while it is in the holster.

But a modern, stiff, protected trigger guard holster? Not going to go off while holstered. Period. it's no more of a risk than a loaded rifle or shotgun in a locked LEO cruiser rack that encloses the trigger area under steel. (I prefer chamber empty for such racks, NOT because the gun might go off while racked. . . but because of the handling to get it out of the rack and ready.)

Let me put it this way -- if are on the second floor of ANY residential structure (or most commercial structures, for that matter), you are "muzzling" everyone downstairs with a holster that isn't a horizontal or upside down rig, even if you are wearing a GI flap holster. Are you particularly worried about THAT "violation" of Rule 2?

If "holster muzzling" is so dangerous, both CCW and OC should be prohibited, except at ground level or on the ground floor of any structure -- because you can't realistically know what is downstairs in line with your muzzle. (No, this isn't reductio ad absurdum. . . because no reducio is necessary. :-P )

let's use some logic, here, not dogmatic hyperbole divorced from reality.

Wolfman said...

As with all else, it depends on circumstances... But yes, I do think it matters, if only as a matter of muzzle awareness. Holstering/unholstering was mentioned already, and I think we've seen enough 'person x shoots hole in leg/couch/floor/etc' stories to realize the hazards there. I figure that anything, even a well built and solid holster, can fail. Getting cavalier only increases the small likelihood of catastrophic results (which I think we all agree we want to avoid). In the end, I prefer to maintain the highest reasonable level of muzzle control even with a holstered firearm- anything cavalier in nature should be excised from habit. No good can come from being cavalier with your sidearm.