Condition one: are you ready?

Col. Jeff Cooper gave us a plethora of insightful firearm training material. Today we are going to concentrate on just one area. The conditions we place our firearm in at different times. These conditions are:

Condition 4: Chamber empty, no magazine, hammer down.

Condition 3: Chamber empty, full magazine, hammer down

Condition 2: Round chambered, full magazine, hammer down

Condition 1: Round chambered, full magazine, hammer cocked, safety on

Condition 0: Round chambered, full magazine, hammer cocked, safety off

Now some parts of the explainations of the conditions do not apply to certain types of firearm actions. When Col. Cooper wrote this he was speaking of the single action 1911 pistol. Many firearms being used for EDC these days are either DA/SA or striker fired or DAO. One example, the Ruger LCP is DAO (Double Action Only) without a safety, yet does have a hammer. Though you will not be able to manually cock the hammer. As you pull the trigger it cocks the hammer and releases the hammer all in one pull of the trigger. most DAO pistols like the Ruger LCP have long, heavier trigger pulls much like a DA revolver.

But on to our main topic. CARRY YOUR PISTOL IN CONDITION ONE. I understand that some of you may refuse to do so, but this is grave mistake. A mistake that will surely cost you your life. This link will help you understand some of what I am speaking of: Tueller Drill Video . Now understand as well, being the Good Guy with a Gun you are not in uniform. Your job is not to police the community. You carry a gun to protect yourself from bodily injury and death. So most of the time you have really no time to react. A perp is not going to let you know ahead of time he is going to attack. Most attacks happen well within 21 feet. To give you another example of how fast you need to be lets watch Instructor Zero and Doug Marcaida: Professional knife fighter vs. Professional firearms instructor My apologies for the length of the video, but it has a lot of great information throughout. As you can see not carrying a round in the chamber does you no good. Frankly, it is down right irresponsible. Once the perp has you incapacitated he now has a tool he may not have had before, your firearm. Also it brings up another good point, living in condition yellow. You can read about it here on the blog as well.

If you have issues carrying in condition one, you are either not confident in your training with your self defense tool or you have a legitimate concern of the quality of firearm you carry. In either instance do the right thing and get that training or get a decent firearm that is from a reputable manufacturer. You leave the house everyday to go to the store, work, school, etc. You place your lives in the hands of other drivers around you each time you walk out that door. nothing is perfect but having a condition one ready firearm in a good quality hloster on your body beats the unlikely event of a negligent discharge.