When I was in a war zone, we all took the M-16 to the latrine, along with the steel pot, web belt, ammo pouches, canteen, etc.

I don't live in a war zone. Sometimes I end up stopping at the Commissary (Fed. Property) and a gun even in the vehicle is a federal offense. No guns allowed on posts (we have several here), and search of the vehicle without cause is an option at any time.

Same with the VA Medical Facilities -- no guns on campus.

So, despite CCW in two states, most days I don't carry.

I've seen posts in some of these forums where people put their Glock 10mm on the vanity while they shower. I see posts: "Every day I carry a 45 ACP, a .357 mag. backup, three speed-loaders, four mags, and a Spiderco serrated blade."

Most days it's a Husky box-cutter. "In the field" -- camping, recreation, generally it's a Rem. 870 "riot gun," XD Tactical 5" in 45 ACP . . . and since I'm "out" I'm likely "shooting" so an array of hardware, AK, Rem. 700 Police, maybe some black powder, small cannon.

But I don't live in a war zone. Most days at CostCo, I'm not packing, or packing an NAA Guardian 32 ACP -- which is "not packing."

Only time I've ever been threatened is out in the woods, by jerks.

So, the obvious question is, since there are 47 views and no replies --

Do you really need a 45 ACP and two mags to go to the corner for a quart of milk? Or parameters to that effect.

good point there!! i do pack every day but for diff reassons prolly. the moose here are always around and sometimes they get their nose outta joint and will try to rearange your car or pickup. the little bears here also need some training from time to time. since there seems no regular schedule for these times i opt to carry my big boomer inside my vehicle at all times,,,its home is hidden inside my ride where it is very reachable at anytime i need to hold the nature of the beast at bay. i never seem to have pesky humans threaten my car or pickup but recon that if this comes my way...il try my best to train them too.

quote:

Do you really need a 45 ACP and two mags to go to the corner for a quart of milk? Or parameters to that effect.

Probably 9,999 out of 10,000 times you will not need your gun, but why risk it being that 1 out of 10,000 that you will need it to defend your life.

"I see posts: "Every day I carry a 45 ACP, a .357 mag. backup, three speed-loaders, four mags, and a Spiderco serrated blade.""

I do not carry the .45 and the .357 at the same time, I only carry two speed loaders, and my Spyderco is the Plainedge. Serated is too hard to sharpen.

Seriously, I have two speed loaders about half the time. The spyderco has ridden in my front pocket since 94 or 95. I'm on number 3 now, lost one and the clip on number one doesn't hold a pocket anymore. My gun has gone to the Commissary parking lot once or twice, no gate but try not to do it.

You bet......remember the old Boy Scout motto....
"Be Prepared."

quote:

Do you really need a 45 ACP and two mags to go to the corner for a quart of milk?

Violent crime never takes a holiday. You can be a victim anywhere at any time. There was a man who had a hit record in the 1970s. Can't remember the song or his name. He was outside on his street somewhere in Philadelphia, changing the oil in his car, when someone walked up to him and shot him dead. No rhyme or reason-- just killed him. Having a rod nearby would not have helped, it was so quick and random. But for situations when you have those several seconds to assess and take action, having a rod at hand and knowing how to use it is the difference between life and death. Still makes me wonder why our blessed liberals in Warshington and all these anti-freedom groups like Handgun Control want our guns when crime is everywhere, there ain't enough cops to be everywhere, nor we would ever tolerate that many cops if we could raise such a number...

The world these days is a War Zone. Name one type of group or building type that has not been hit by some psychotic loser...

Any place I can't carry my Para P-14, I don't go.
That includes the VA Hospital. I was there this afternoon.

Rich

I would never leave the house with only two extra magazines....

NEVER.

OXO,

YOU tell ME when and where I am going to need my 357, and I won't carry until that time.


By the way, that exact scenario happened to a friend of mine. He has since aquired a CCW, and, as the saying goes, he "won't leave home without it".

Complacency is the enemy......that one time that you don't carry is the time you will most need your firearm.

quote:

Originally posted by N E 450 No2:
I would never leave the house with only two extra magazines....

NEVER.

N E 450 No2
Being a l.e.o. how many mags would you recommend an armed citizen carry and why?

Perry

With a high cap semiauto I would carry at least 2 extra, with a 1911 I always carry 4 extra.

And I mean on my person, I always have more loaded magazines in the vehicle.

If you get in a "storm" you can never have too many bullets.

lets say you become involved in one of those mass shooting incidents, you might be able to keep the shooter contained, while staying safe yourself, until more Police arrive.

Also, if you get involved in a crime in progress, many times there is more than one bad guy.

Extra bullets equal extra insurance to me.

quote:

Originally posted by N E 450 No2:
With a high cap semiauto I would carry at least 2 extra, with a 1911 I always carry 4 extra.

And I mean on my person, I always have more loaded magazines in the vehicle.

If you get in a "storm" you can never have too many bullets.

lets say you become involved in one of those mass shooting incidents, you might be able to keep the shooter contained, while staying safe yourself, until more Police arrive.

Also, if you get involved in a crime in progress, many times there is more than one bad guy.

Extra bullets equal extra insurance to me.

Agreed for LE.
How about the c.h.l. carrier?

Perry

I always have one of my .45s with me, sometimes even when I'm mowing my lawn.
When I'm in the house one is never more then a few steps away.
But I don't carry extra mags and my .45s are just single stacks.
The world is changing pretty quickly and I just like to be prepered for it.
And no, I don't carry a gun because I'm paranoid.
Why should I be paranoid? 'I'M CARRYING A GUN!'

Perry

Same for the CHL carrier.

If trouble finds you, it does not make much difference, you are still on you own till help arrives....

And that can take a while.

Also I do realize that there are many times that a CHL carrier cannot carry that much "hardware".

I also realize most will not...

Truth is most will never need their handgun....

But IF you ever do, you will need it BAD...

Just IMHO, of course.

Yup.

Thank you for the good advise!

Perry

Walkig my dog one night. Three thugs lined up on me. One might say I didn't need a concealed .357 when doing something as mundane as walking my little dog. But I did. You just never know. Glad it wasn't a little. 32. Might as well not have a gun as having a Seecamp or the equivalent.

When on duty I carry a 1911 single stack. I'm assigned to an admin. job so I just carry the two I have to carry. When working certain extra jobs I carry four. During Hurricane Ike I had six.
When off duty I carry one spare no matter the gun I'm carrying.
Remember your malfunction drills?????

I view a personal defensive firearm as I do most safety equipment.

Does one need a PFD on every boat trip.

Does one need a seltbelt on every car trip.

Does one need a fire extinsher every day but I have several around the house in easy to get places.

Does one need a helmet on every bike ride.

Does one needs snake boots walking accross the Montana praire when hunnting pdogs seen lots of rattle snakes but never been bitten or attacked.

The odds are that one well never need any of these things so why bother with any of them.

Like any safety item when one needs it one really needs it.

0X0;

I am not certain you weren't being rhetorical. Anyway, no, I don't carry more than 2 magazines on my person, usually only one fighting caliber, top end gun that I have many rounds through and is in top working condition.

My "fear", if you wish, is that the one time I do in fact need a firearm to save my life or that of an innocent, I will be slacking and unarmed, and therefore having to rush an idiot like an idiot....

While I work on an Army installation, I shoot there too, so I take my carry gun every day, shooting about once per week (more when teh Wx cooperates). Not sure which bases you are near, but "properly secured" weapons are not a violation. If you haven't verified with the PM office, do so, most regs are online in public sites, so check it out if yu have not already.

My carry "gear" consists of gun, holster and mag carrier, 23 rounds of 40 cal Fed HST folding lock blade knife, surefire flashlight and a GI pressure dressing....not much more.

Also, since I have my range kit with me on a daily basis, I have a few spare empty mags, reloads, staple gun, ears/eyes and targets, so I guess I do have a small ammo point worth of ammo at hand.....

Oh, I have been known to wear a light weight level IIa vest most of the time too, cool Wx mostly.

Life is a risk assessment-how much risk are you willing to take.

Catastrophic/infrequent seems to be the normal risk level in my mind.

I am usually armed or next to a loaded, safed firearm at home. I do mow my lawn/split firewood etc while armed, doesn't everyone?

Semper Paratus

Let me go on record:

I don't disagree with anything posted here.

There have been a couple times when I've been "confronted." Typically it's a "tweaker" (meth addict) who is tweaked and looking to rectify some imagined "affront."

One actually took offense when I asked them to move out of the entry at the local "Grab N' Go." I was recovering from a knee injury and walking with a cane. Hard to maneuver, and besides I'm an "old fart."

The guy actually went outside, turned his truck around in the parking lot, left the door open and engine running -- then came back inside, to the rear of the store, to announce to me: "I'm gonna kick your fucking ass."

"Weapons" available to me at that point were -- 20 oz. scalding hot coffee, hardwood cane, and a 9mm Kahr.

We got his license number and lodged a complaint with local police. He was a tweaker they'd been looking to pinch. Search of his vehicle turned up drugs, and he went away.

So yeah, it happens. That's not the only incident, but one of several. But we didn't use the gun.

(Nice to have the option though.)

Count me as "undecided." It's a difficult balancing act most days. Too many days I end up in places where federal law says "no guns" -- not even locked in the trunk.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
I view a personal defensive firearm as I do most safety equipment.

Does one need a PFD on every boat trip.

Does one need a seltbelt on every car trip.

Does one need a fire extinsher every day but I have several around the house in easy to get places.

Does one need a helmet on every bike ride.

Does one needs snake boots walking accross the Montana praire when hunnting pdogs seen lots of rattle snakes but never been bitten or attacked.

The odds are that one well never need any of these things so why bother with any of them.

Like any safety item when one needs it one really needs it.

Does one need a condom for every ....

Sorry, but I just couldn't help myself.

Daniel77 I would guess that the andswer to your question is a very personal one. And depends on the life style you are living.

OK, I reorganized my laptop daypack and put the Smith .357 snubby in the "reach in" pocket on the back side.

Being a LEO I don't leave home without something that goes bang, even for milk. If you have the legal ability to do it and "if" things go bad it will be the longest wait of your life waiting for the police if your gun is at home.

I live on a lonely road out in the woods, but just 8 miles or so off of I-5. For those of you who don't know it, I-5 is the major drug corridor between San Diego and Seattle (and Nogales to Seattle too, for that matter).

We are just about far enough north that the crazies either get really hungry just about here, or they are running out of petrol.

So they like to do home invasions, robberies, mail thefts, etc. to get their necessary funding. (Apparently the "stimulus" program doesn't work for them either.)

It also rains a lot...that being true, after nightfall it is really, really dark hereabouts.

My point (finally) is: Even at home I carry. When I go out to the road to the mailbox I carry. When I go to the barn I carry. About 8-10 years ago, one of my neighbors was murdered by one of those crazies robbing HIM (and his wife) one night. You may have heard of him. He WAS Lt. Gen. Marion Carl, USMC (ret). But now he is just plain dead. He had a loaded shotgun behind the bedroom door, but didn't have it in hand when his wife answered the doorbell.

When I go anywhere else I carry two weapons at least...a Glock 20 and an S&W 940, both loaded with Black Talons, and extra mags & full moon clips. And in my vehicle I also have a very big, very sharp, cane knife from
Columbia. (Those of you from Hawaii or Puerto Rico will know what a "cane knife" is....has a very thin blade about 6" wide and about 20-24" long. Is used more or less like a scythe by sugar cane workers....

I am an ex-LEO, have had a CCW permit for many years, and have a room full of shooting trophies. Most important, I am not going to wait for someone to hurt me before I do situational awarness, assessment, and if need be, action.

I haven't had to shoot at anyone in the last 40 years, but I still remember how. I hope to die in my own bed, asleep, dreaming of sunny fields and good crops.

I"m out in the country. Everyone locally knows that home invasion is a good way to get shot dead.

Quarter mile drive up to the house, fenced on both sides and no where to turn around. You can't tell if anyone's home until you get all the way up the drive. And if you're a jerk, by then it's too late.

AK and shotgun, 44 mag in the night stand.

What is that Latin saying?

"Who would desire peace must prepare for war."

Qui desiderat pacem praeparet bellum

I agree with Alberta Canuck...sometimes the gun in the night stand or behind the bedroom door is too far away!

A Couple of other things also always at hand (not necessarily in hand but within easy immediate reach)...a 6-cell Maglite, and a 1,000,000 candlepower "hand light".

The Maglite works fine for occasions when light may be required for more than 10 minutes (and substitutes for a darned fine billy-club). The hand light will blind just about anyone's eyes it's directed into unless they are wearing a "No. 10 lens" welder's hood. Plus, it's really good for observing what's going on up to somwhere between 1/8th to 1/4 mile away. Not too many bad guys like to have it focused on them.

My vehicles also always have at least a half-dozen railway flares in them too. Can act as good diversions at night when you want to be unseen yourself, but attract the curiosity or attention of somone else out there. (If they are looking at that, you may be able to get behind them...anyay, they are not seeing YOU while looking at the flare.) Also may give them the impression that perhaps LEO assistance has arrived.

I've also found out a couple of times that even the most aggressive "rowdy" doesn't want to get "torched" with one...maybe it's the fire, maybe the hiss...don't know, but they back off.

I'm sure you guys all have stuff you rely on too in addition to just guns.

I even used to carry a spray bottle filled with ammonia/water when I was in fairly frequent contact with nasty dogs. A bit of that in the eyes and they go away fast. Bear spray would be my choice today though.

quote:

Originally posted by 0X0:
I"m out in the country. Everyone locally knows that home invasion is a good way to get shot dead.

Me too. And yet it continues to happen.
It's not the locals you need to worry about friend. It's those who are "just passing through" that should cause concern.

I popped in over at a friend's house the other day to pick up some gear when he wasn't home. He told me he would leave it laying on the front seat of his truck.
It wasn't there when I got there. But his shotgun, the keys to his truck and house, and a bunch of other valuable stuff was.

I keep telling folks this ain't 1950 no more. They don't listen...and are floored when some gremlin turns their world upside down.

I live alone on a cul de sac in a relatively nice neighborhood in a small town. I am the youngest guy on the street at 67. I don my Commander and two spare mags with my pants every morning. I have a busy four lane within very short walking distance behind a privacy fence behind my house. Anyone who hops over that fence is invisible from the outside. I usually keep a Bushmaster carbine or an SKB 12 gauge auto pretty close, too. There have been home invasions in the next town toward Orlando. Orlando is riddled with gangs. So is Deltona, two towns away from me. I'm not waiting for a home invasion to go down here and then getting ready for the next one. The first one could be me.

The good Captain says,

quote:

The first one could be me.

"If you would have Peace, prepare for War." I agree with your preparedness, Captain. I'm not too physically far from a handheld self-defense mechanism, myself. I don't carry, but the idea has crossed my mind...

From a biography about the general:

quote:

On June 28, 1998, Marion Carl was murdered while trying to protect his wife from an intruder at their home in Oregon. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. General Carl was the first fighter Ace of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Hell of a man, a soldier and an American. May God bless him...

http://www.veterantributes.org...uteDetail.asp?ID=531

General Carl shot down eleven enemy aircraft in two weeks. A genuine American hero...

quote:

Originally posted by homebrewer:
From a biography about the general:

quote:

On June 28, 1998, Marion Carl was murdered while trying to protect his wife from an intruder at their home in Oregon. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. General Carl was the first fighter Ace of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Hell of a man, a soldier and an American. May God bless him...

http://www.veterantributes.org...uteDetail.asp?ID=531

General Carl shot down eleven enemy aircraft in two weeks. A genuine American hero...

Yes, he was, and a damned fine person, too. One of the nicest, most open, intelligent, friendly, hospitable people I have met in my life. The last time I was over at his house for tea he gave me a signed copy of his autobiography and it is a great book from end to end.

His murderer is on death row at the Oregon State Penitentiary, but he's damned lucky to be there. If I or any of our rancher neighbors had caught the son of a bitch, he'd be pushing up lilies from the bottom of some swamp covered in cow shit right now!

The biography you posted is very slightly in error in a couple of places, one being his rank at retirement. He was at that time the Inspector General of the U.S. Marine Corps, holding the rank of Lieutenant General...three stars, not the two stars the eulogy mentions.

He set several world speed records as a pilot. And he was not only an ace, but an ace more than 3 times! I don't recall if he ever served in Europe during WWII, but most of his "kills" were recorded over the vast, lonely oceans of the Pacific Theatre...where just getting back to the carrier was often a trick requiring great skill, let alone shooting down 15 or more enemy planes in the process.

May the Great Architect use him well now that he has left the East for the sundown beyond the West. So mote it be.

My immediate solution is a Para-Ordnance P14. Use it until I can get to the old 10 gauge double.

Rich

Yeah, but getting back to the first part of the thread. I don't carry an entrenching tool and shelter-half with me in town, most days.

I think for day-to-day the full size 45 semi-auto and double mag pouch is a bit over the top. Leave the bayonet at home, probably the gas mask too.

I don't put the Glock on the vanity while I shower. I've read threads where people do this. One was asking about taking the Glock into the shower with him.

These days I have the .357 in the laptop pack, reach in pocket, no flaps, no zippers. In the event of a "mugging" it could be "the pocket where I carry my wallet" -- but it's not.

Firearms are prohibited on military installations, Veterans Admin. facilities. VA needs "probable cause" to search the vehicle, but not your person.

Military installation can search at any time for no reason at all. So, even locked in the trunk is not a legal option.

And I'm far out of town, have to "plan" my stops if I'm carrying a firearm.