 Hey there friends, thanks for checking in. There have been debates in the gun world as long as I can remember. Glock versus SIG, 20 gauge versus 12 gauge. ARs versus AKs. This is always happening. Loaded chamber versus unloaded chamber. And people love to debate the pros and cons of their position. And it makes for a lot of fun. But there are certain parts of debates that have very little room for discussion. And I want to talk about that last one. Loaded chamber versus unloaded chamber. The people that carry with an unloaded chamber will say that makes them feel comfortable. It makes them feel safer. It makes them feel like they can go about their day and not have to worry about the gun bouncing around on their hip or whatever the case. They feel better and they feel that they have the ability to draw their pistol, load around and engage if a threat appears. You know, in discussion purposes, that may make sense. But then we look at the real world purposes or the real world scenarios where we watch, on video, encounters take place. Even the people with the greatest amount of situational awareness get caught by surprise. And it just happens because the criminal decides when they will attack. We are basically the first responders in a self-defense situation. If you're gonna be a first responder, you need to make sure that you have every advantage possible to be successful. I remember years ago, over 20 years ago, I was at a gun store. The guy working there was former law enforcement. And he said, if you're not gonna keep around in your chamber, leave your gun at home. You're wasting your time. I've experienced too much. I've seen too much. I know how time works against us and an encounter where our life is literally at stake and we're gonna have to charge around. It makes no sense. And since then, even back further, I have always carried with the round of the chamber. Now they call that with a strike or fire non-safety handgun, condition zero. All right, here's a Hellcat, no safety, round in the chamber, condition zero. With a 1911 or a cocked hammer, condition one. Thumb safety engaged. If the thumb safety were not engaged, that would be condition zero. That's a light trigger. I don't know about you, but I would engage the thumb safety and go condition one with a hammer fired gun. That could be a little debatable as far as the hammer fired, you know, light trigger and all that. But in terms of the striker fire gun, I don't see any room for debate. About five years ago, I took this very intense training. It had to do with a ballistic mirror. And the person who looked to be straight ahead in front of me was actually next to me and it was a reflection in the mirror. It was very cool training. And we would engage in conversation. And all of a sudden, the criminal would draw their firearm and shoot at the mirror, which looked like they're shooting at me. I had to respond. Everything happened so quick. I learned a lot with that training. I think that training should become a more standard type of training. We haven't, I haven't seen it since, but it was really intense and realistic. And in each case, I was responding to a gun drawn and the other person got shots off first. If they hit, I would have most likely lost if I couldn't return fire. And I think about that. It was more difficult enough to respond to a gun pointed at you, probably 10 to 12 yards away. It was difficult enough to respond after they got the jump, let alone to think about charging a handgun and firing. Even the most people or the people with the greatest amount of situational awareness get caught off guard. The criminal decides when they're going to attack. To put yourself at a disadvantage and say, well, I'm going to have the ability to pull, charge and engage all at one time when they have to jump on you. It's probably not gonna work out. It's hard enough without having to do that, to charge. So it is my firm belief that carrying with a loaded round is the best way to go. Primarily because we don't have the capacity, our ability to react in a split second, bam, bam, is so important that we use every advantage that we possibly can. And if we have to do another move by charging the gun, we can be in trouble. If you watch videos of encounters that take place, it happens so fast. Somebody draws, the other person draws, whoever gets their shots on target most likely is gonna win. Of course it could change depending on where they're hit but to expect to draw then charge, it's not, you know, your chances for success have been decreased by a lot. So it is my belief and this is how I practice. You carry with a round in the chamber, consistently, daily and with confidence. All that stuff about, you know, I don't feel comfortable. You know, the longer you carry, the better off you'll be. You get yourself a quality holster that covers that entire trigger guard where that trigger cannot be manipulated. You get yourself a quality belt. You trust yourself, you're trained that way. You practice dry firing, you do all that stuff. You gain that confidence and next thing you know, if the situation arises, you will react with how you're trained and that is really where you want to be. The last place you wanna be is a disadvantage against somebody who is willing to take your life. If you like videos like this, please subscribe and share, I always appreciate thumbs up button. Thanks for watching and you guys be safe.