Any auto I carry is always with loaded chamber. The event with Zimmerman illustrates that one may not have time or opportunity. If you are knocked down with someone on top of you, doing their best to beat you severely, you better not HAVE to chamber a round. You need it to go right now.
True, but aren't we supposed NOT to find ourselves in that situation by being observant and all in the first place....
I mean if you are already knocked down and someone on top of you, you're already in deep doo doo...
In Zimmerman case GZ was extremely lucky that Treyvon was only using his fists and he obviously wasn't that good.
If Treyvon was using a knife or a gun Zimmerman was long gone...
I don't know why some people think ALL bad situations they are going to find themselves in, a one on one situation with a big surprise where mili-seconds will change everything while most self defense incidents happens as:
- After an escalating verbal confrontation,
- At a residence against an intruder,
- Saving a third party ( where a CCW saves the day while a crazy boyfriend stabbing his girlfriend kind of incident )
- In a public area with many other people around like the Internet cafe where the older gentleman shot two BGs,
- Places like movie theaters, shopping malls where people got caught in a mass shooting,
where all situations above will give ample time to draw and rack if one is carrying a semi-auto with an empty chamber.
I am sorry but if you find yourself in a situation where you need to draw, yet you believe you may not have the split second time to rack your gun; Well, either you're in a situation where drawing a gun from concealment is the wrong move or you're already screwed!
Let's play devil's advocate; What do you think would've happen if GZ drew his gun (with an empty chamber) push TM's chest and yell "back off or I'll shoot"!
Who could say with 100% certainty that after seeing the gun TM wouldn't going to stop his attack by saying "Oh man" and back off... He could've been still alive and GZ end up not ruining his life!
Those of you who believe Massad Ayoob is a gun-guru; remember his incident at parking lot against 2 guys who were clearly about to attack him?
Remember what he did?
He showed his gun to them and that was enough for thugs to run away...
Who knows?