In my experience that's NOT how the US Army taught its personnel to carry the 1911 so I'm not so sure it was literally "meant" to be carried that way. Remember the book "Unsafe At Any Speed"? You do if you're old enough. That ruined the Chevrolet Corvair. I have always felt that way about a 1911 in Condition 1. It's not safe and I don't care what anyone says about it. YMMV and obviously does in so many cases. Everyone has choices donchano!!!
Given that the 1907 Colt pistol used in the service pistol trials didn't have a thumb safety, it's pretty clear the US Army didn't intend it to be carried cocked and locked. Why would they? They were not yet even sold on the concept of a semi auto pistol and were using revolvers issued to units as controls preceding and following the trials.
The major difference between the 1905 Colt and the 1907 Colt was the addition of a grip safety and John Browning was clearly moving in a direction of making it safer to carry and or reholster with a loaded chamber.
Interestingly, the 1907 Savage was a striker fired pistol with a thumb safety and the third finalist in the trials, a Luger developed for .45 ACP also had a thumb safety.
Regardless of how the US Army decided to use it, John Browning designed the 1911 to incorporate both the grip safety for the 1907 and a thumb safety and clearly intended it to be capable of being safely carried cocked and locked.
I've concealed carried for 36 years and the majority of that time I've carried a 1911 or a Hi Power in condition 1.
(As an analogy, my wife and I are also cave divers, I've been a diver since 1985, a technical wreck diver since 1995, and a cave diver since 2007. Scubapro Jet Fins are the 1911 of the diving world and I started using Jet in 1985. Like my 1911s, I've "replaced" my Jet Fins at least a dozen times but keep coming back to them because they just do the job extremely well.)
"Safety" wise, can count maybe a dozen or so times over that 36 years when I've discovered the safety was "off" in the holster. That only occurred with 1911's that had a totally unnecessary (IMHO) ambidextrous safety lever. There's no free lunch and in OWB or IWB carry, and where you might be down on the ground, an ambidextrous safety will get clicked off on occasion. You have to balance that against the actual need for an ambidextrous safety. So far it's about 12 to 0 for me personally.
Now…that said, the thumb safety ending up in the off position in the holster does not present a safety issue. The trigger is still fully protected, provided a proper holster is used, and the grip safety is still disengaged. The gun isn't going to fire itself just because the safety is off.
A 1911 with the thumb safety off with a loaded chamber (Condition 0) is analogous to the 1907 trials pistol. There's no danger in the holster, but an overly enthusiastic and poorly trained shooter can end up putting his or her finger inside the trigger guard and pull the trigger somewhere prior to the muzzle being pointed down range.
Adding the thumb safety (Condition 1) doesn't completely solve this problem as the same kind of overly enthusiastic and poorly trained shooter can also move the thumb safety to "fire" during the draw. These are the folks who end up putting a round in the dirt a couple feet in front of them during a tactical match.
But in 36 years and literally hundreds of thousands of rounds, I've never done that or had an ND with a 1911 shooting and carrying one in condition 1.
So…with proper training a 1911 can clearly be safely carried in Condition 1 - because JMB designed it to have that capability.
What makes people nervous with the 1911, Hi Power, CZ-75 etc, carried in condition 1 is the visibly cocked hammer. Yet the same observers and shooters think nothing of the Glock and other striker fired pistols carried on a loaded chamber, even though it is effectively cocked, but with no manual safety or other safety system not directly tied to the trigger.
Condition one is not how the Army taught me back in 1966. However lots of folks do it and are comfortable with it. A 1911 in condition one seems to me to be a lot safer than a loaded Glock.
I am personally not comfortable with it. So I don't carry a 1911, I carry a 645.
At my age I have decided that the extra time it takes to get into action is probably a good thing for my decision making process.
How long does it take to cock a 1911?
But, as I said at the top, lots of smart people do it safely. If you have to ask questions about it, maybe you should not.
As noted above Glocks are carried on a loaded chamber with no manual safety other than what's tied to the trigger, and people don't see that as a threat, even though the trigger pull is a lot shorter and lighter than virtually any DA pistol or revolver.
And the Glock has a much higher incidence of NDs and shooters shooting themselves, especially in IWB carry.
I am however not an advocate of carrying a 1911 hammer down on a loaded chamber (Condition 2). Under extreme stress you tend to lose fine motor control and cocking the hammer on a 1911 can be an elusive skill.
You are better off carrying it in Condition 3 with the hammer down and the safety off on an empty chamber. You can rack the slide to load and cock the pistol using only gross motor movements and it's not really any slower than cocking the hammer.
From what I have read, the 1911 was made to be carried in Condition III, hammer down, empty chamber, by the military. It was only to be put into Condition I when contact was "imminent" or after contact before it was safe to clear the gun.
One of the modifications made before it was adopted by the Army, who still had a lot of horse cavalry, was the firing pin stop. Originally it was square bottomed...the Army asked if the slide could be made easier to cycle for the horse back riders and that led to the adoption of the radiused FPS and I believe a lower weight mainspring...which is probably why the 1911 in stock form kicks more than is often modified to...
On a side note...my bet is that the Glock was made to be carried the same way. Gaston Glock was not a gun person...he was an inventor trying to get a military contact. Have not been able to confirm this, but my guess is that the Austrian military carries their handguns in Condition III just like the Israelies do so no consideration was given to the gun being carried continuously with a round in the chamber...
I don't know about the Austrians, but the Israelis started carrying their service pistols in Condition 3 at least in part because they had a rather random collection of pistols from various surplus, captured and new sources. They bought Hi Powers and could have opted to carry them in condition 1, but they also needed to balance that against training requirements where condition 3 works with any semi auto pistol.
They also focus heavily on training and an Israeli soldier can employ a pistol in condition 3 very rapidly.
Glock found itself in a position to market the pistol to police departments looking to transition from DA revolvers to semi a auto pistols and Glock marketed the concept of a single trigger pull and the ease of training police officers to shoot a pistol that functioned like a DAO revolver, with no manual safety and a single trigger pull.
The fact that pull was a lot shorter, a lot lighter, and a lot less safe were facts that were both conveniently buried, and to a large extent has been mitigated over time with holster design. When I was an LEO in the mid to late 1980s, we had duty holsters that were work close to the waist. Now, you'll see duty holsters with a spacer between belt and holster creating a significant distance between the waist and the gun.
That creates a few distinct downsides, but it does keep a striker fired pistol out away from objects like clothing and jacket draw string fobs that could otherwise intrude into the trigger guard and cause the pistol to fire when it's being re holstered. And *when* that happens anyway, that space between the holster and the leg reduces the potential for the officer to shoot him or herself in the leg.
