safeguardguy said:
Credit given for Murphy; Some folks carry a back-up gun in case their primary gun fails. I think that is over the top. But to each his own. In tactical pistol fighting, they limit your rounds to 5 to discourage the "spray and pray" mentality or panic. Lets realize that the chances of getting into a lethal threat situation where you actually go gun are slim but not non-existant. More pointing or presenting situations than anything else.
It is a personal decision of how prepared you feel you need to be vs comfort. I have a four mag holder so I can conceal 61 rounds, but I don't. My semi Auto does not jam. It is reliable and well maintained. Further, If I am getting out of my vehicle and feel concerned I sometimes pocket the extra mag. In an extreme hollywood type multiple assailant firestorm situation I still should not need more than 13 rounds to either get the job done or fight back to my vehicle for a spare mag. Many carry a revolver because they are supposedly "more reliable than semi autos". When I carry a revolver, I carry a speed strip so I have 12 rounds total on me. I am comfortable with that. The steps run like this: situational awareness, avoid, evade, retreat, present, move to cover or tactical advantage. Its usually over there. If it goes beyond that, keep moving and don't spray and pray.
Please don't take this reply as a personal attack or challenge, because it is not intended as such. It is entirely posted in the spirit of discussion, to get people thinking.
Personally, as far as comfort goes, compared to the pistol on my hip I've never even been aware of the extra magazine on my support side hip. Come to think of it, compared to my pistol, comfort's never been an issue for an extra mag, flashlight, and a set of cuffs on my offside hip either.
I agree, I personally wouldn't carry a BUG either; often there's a fine line between 'prepared' and 'Rambo'.
Again, in the spirit of discussion, as far as semi-autos that don't jam, any mechanical object can fail, even yours. Parts can break, springs can fail (even new ones), mags can crack, rounds can be dud, et al. I too have firearms that have never jammed to date, but I'm not going to bet my life on it not happening - again, my personal decision. Regular and proper maintenance will go a long way to preventing these things from happening, but won't totally eliminate them.
Personally, if I'm going to go to the bother of CCW I'm going to carry an extra magazine (and a flashlight as a bare minimum, but that's a different subject). When/if I CCW, there's a good chance that one or more of my family members will be with me at the time. The last thing I want to have to worry about is how I'm going to somehow fight my way back to my vehicle all the while trying to stay aware of cover, concealment, bad guys, family members, innocent bystanders, my own butt, arriving police officers, etc. Hopefully family members shouldn't be an issue; they all know that at Dad's signal, they're to put as much distance as possible between them and me and call 911 (providing location, events, my description as well as that of the bad guys, direction of travel, etc) - again if possible. Not to mention that if I do need to shoot, once the smoke's cleared and I'm hunkered down behind cover and have scanned 361 degrees, I want to be able to bring my firearm back up to full capacity - just in case; the old +1 rule.
Sometimes my wife shakes her head at me; I'm one of those guys that as a minimum always carries a Surefire in my pocket as a compliment to my folding knife in the other pocket. Maybe I'm paranoid. I like to call it prepared.