A Round In The Chamber
I’m often amazed at the level of creative indignation for firearms some law enforcement agencies have in their press releases. It’s not enough to just report what happened, they have to add in that little extra spice to make it sound even more insidious. A recent arrest report included “three loaded handguns were seized, two of which had rounds in the chambers”. Isn’t that where rounds are supposed to be?
Don’t get me wrong, arresting bad people carrying guns is a very good thing and we are all better off for it. In the case this quote came from, there were drugs in the car, one of the guns was stolen and one of the people with a gun was a convicted felon. What I am pointing out is the anti-gun establishment making what is normal sound treacherous.
When I started seeing the round in the chamber comments, I thought maybe this was a gun-control throwback to the old west cowboy days where it was common to leave the chamber under the hammer of a single action revolver empty since a blow to the hammer from being dropped or bumped could set off the round. Of course, this isn’t true of modern-day firearms which incorporate effective drop safeties*. But then I remembered anti-gun zealots don’t recognize the right to bear any type of firearm made after the Second Amendment was ratified in 1791. Foolish me.
Whenever a pro-gun-control department seizes a firearm, whether it’s just one, a few or dozens, it’s always reported as an “arsenal” or “huge weapons cache”. Add in ammunition, and it’s “the biggest horde of weapons I’ve ever seen”. These seizures are carefully arraigned and displayed for the press on cloth covered tables or, if from a residence, uncased and spread out in the driveway so the press can get all the photographs they need for a sensationally graphic article. Damn the jury pool, full coverage ahead!!
So first off, people own firearms in this country. Some only one or two, some dozens or more. According to a recent estimate, there are approximately 466 million civilian owned firearms in the United States, with one million new firearms being purchased every month for the past 43 months in a row. It is estimated that 46% of households own at least one firearm, with the average owning five. Yet every time the number of firearms someone owns is reported by the press, it is presented as a huge, out-of-ordinary, scary/danger number.
Second, the round is SUPPOSED to be in the chamber. There’s nothing insidious about it. In the firearm/self-defense community, having a loaded semi-automatic firearm without a round in the chamber — Condition 3 for you purists — is just about as unsafe as an unloaded firearm. It assumes in a self-defense situation you’ll have the additional time after you draw your firearm to use your other hand or closest hard object to rack the firearm before you can use it. Considering you are responding to a life-or-death threat; you are already WAY behind the reaction curve and time is a bit of a factor here.
Oh, and keeping an empty chamber on a revolver? Unless you are carrying a period correct antique single action revolver, that’s just silly. Why would you purposefully reduce your already limited number of rounds?
Again, I’m not advocating against arresting bad guys with guns. It’s actually kind of refreshing since so many of the ultra-far-left progressive prosecutors refuse to press charges against them as part of the pro-criminal policies. What I’m against is the propaganda from the law enforcement agencies and news outlets who are trying to normalize everything to do with firearms are bad and should be banned.
A firearm is not evil.
A loaded firearm is not evil.
A round in the chamber is not evil.
A standard capacity magazine is not evil.
A hollow point defensive round is not evil.
A firearm carried in public is not evil.
The ONLY thing evil about any firearm is the intent of the person carrying it. While there are those who will use firearms for criminal behavior, there are many more who will use them for lawful purposes and in defense of life.
So, when you see these press releases and news stories, you can start to understand the bias of the departments and community, and what needs to be changed.
Bob
*Does not apply to Sig Sauer P320.
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