I did not get into guns deeply until about 20 years ago or so. But, it seems to me that when I was a kid, 50s, 60s, and perhaps later, I don't recall people with semi autos carrying back up mags.
I speculate that carrying an extra mag or more is a fairly recent phenomenon.
Am I wrong?
From what I have seen, LEO's and Army personnel have always carried spare magazines. That is pretty easy to see throughout history in the photo's of them. Over the last few decades with the popularity of the high capacity 9mm Glocks, Sigs, etc. many civilian's did not feel the need to carry a spare mag when their gun held 12, 13, 14, 15 + bullets. Some still did, but I would think you are probably correct in that most civilian's did not.
When I first started carrying back in 1979 I did so with a 6 shot revolver, then went to a lighter and smaller 5 shot M60. I always had an extra pouch of ammo on me. Many of my friends who were not LEO's did not. 5 years ago I started carrying my Sig P365 (10+1 on board) and when pocket carrying I did not carry a spare mag. My initial feeling was the 11 rounds was more than double that of my Chief's Special. When I used an OWB holster I did always have a spare mag on my belt pouch - I still do however even when pocket carrying now, I will carry a spare 10 round magazine in another pocket.
Today's criminal element is way different than even a decade ago! Now you can get killed for no reason at all and many times not just by one criminal. It is very popular now for criminals to travel in packs or gangs and if I ever had to defend myself I am not sure if only one mag full would do the trick. It is now popular for people to get attacked, shot and physically abused right out of the blue and for no reason at all other than they are there. My new line of thinking is what good is a powerful generator in a power outage without plenty of gas for it to run on. My thinking now is that if I am going through all the time, trouble, training, expense and effort to buy, carry and train with a firearm, shouldn't I feel comfortable that I have enough ammo with me should I ever need to use it? My feeling is that we now live in a time period that may not conform to the old shooting statistics (less than 3 shots). There are many places in the USA that the LEO's have had their wings clipped and you are pretty much on your own now. For the slight inconvenience, bulk and weight of an extra magazine, I get a better feeling by having one than to shed the extra weight and bulk and not to carry one.
I am "that guy" that will not drive a car without a spare tire, first aid kit, air compressor and tire plug kit onboard and so in the same vein, yes I now always have a spare mag on me.
