My little Kel-Tec P32 is the gun I sometimes carry when I'm doing chores outside around the house, or doing weekend errands.  This morning, instead of the Glock 26, Colt Pony, or SA-XD40 that I usually carry during the week, I grabbed the P32 out of the safe, dropped it in my pocket, and headed off to work.

This afternoon, realizing that I'd probably be working late tonight (my office is in a pretty bad neighborhood), I began to feel foolish for carrying such a tiny gun today.

So, here it is, around 9:00pm and I'll hopefully be leaving in 20 or 30 minutes.  For some reason, I pulled the little P32 out to give it a quick check.  I popped the mag out, and it was empty.  Pulled the slide back, chamber empty too.

I feel like such an idiot.  I just can't believe that this gun I've been carrying (though in relatively low-threat situations, except for today) has been EMPTY.  The last time I fired this pistol was about 3 months ago.  After cleaning, I must have just tossed it into the safe, intending to load it later.  Since I don't carry it very often, I must have simply forgotten about it not being loaded the next time I retrieved it.  What a moron.  Why did I not check it sooner?  Lesson learned.

So, bottom line, I'm here at work, after dark, in a bad neighborhood, armed with only an inert pistol (a small one, at that), and a pocketknife.  Wish me luck (not that I deserve it, after being so stupid).

--Mike

Can you say Barny Fife?[lol]

Can you imagine how surprised you would have been if you would really have needed it.
I've been hunting with guys who had a shot at a good buck & when they pulled the trigger "CLICK". A little embarrassing but not fatal. Please be more carful, you could miss a chance to collect a trophy, or worse not make it home to your loved ones.[:D]

P.S. Don't be so hard on yourself, no harm, no foul. Making a mistake is part of the human condition.

At least he had a bullet in his pocket.

Empty gun doesn't even make a good ROCK.
Unless, of course, you're fighting Superman.

Nick

D'OH! [shock]

Well, there is one advantage of my Glock 21.  There is no damn way that I could ever pick it up empty and not know it.

[slap]

Bad Mcaswell! You know better!

[stick]

Can you say "chamber check"?

That's what you get, for leaving an UN-loaded pistol laying around.........[;D]

I went to work at an off duty job with an empty holster once. I was there for an hour before I realized that I had left my revolver at home. Fortunately, I noticed before anyone else did. Sh*t happens.

Yeah.

That's a big safety rule right there.

[buttkick]

Hate when that happens !

Anytime I know I might NEED it, I watch the round go in then do a chamber check.  Can't be too certain.  Damn, how'd you not tell the weight difference?

 It is guys like you that the anti-gunners are talking about.....[:D]

One should always use a bathroom stall to "rack the slide".
Nice way of phrasing it, though.

Completely off-subject here, but I saw Don Knotts (Barney Fife) on a talk show a few years back and he said that forever after The Andy Griffith Show, when Knotts would travel or appear in person he would sometimes meet police officers who would ask him for his autograph and/or give Knotts a bullet from their Sam Brown rig loops. Knotts swore that he kept EVERY bullet that was ever given to him over the years since the show ended and now had hundreds of bullets on display in his office.

Well, you guys are being way too gentle... I deserve a thorough thrashing.

Regardless, I'm about to make a run for it.  Fortunately, my car is parked right out in front, so I don't have far to go.

--Mike

[size=5] It was nice knowing you!..[/size=5][LOL]

I've seen cops get weak in the knees and almost cry when they suddenly realize that they have been working with an empty chamber for days. It sure makes them believers in daily chamber checks.

Do you remember in the old Superman TV show with George Reeves that when they were shooting at him, he would stand there with his chest puffed out and the bullets would bounce off, but when they throw the empty gun, he would DUCK!!!

Too easy.

[redforman]DUMBASS[/redforman]

Repeat after me...

Always check my weapon, always check my weapon, always check my weapon.........

Keep going until you get the idea.

I always press check the weapon when reholstering after it was out for awhile (like when I go into the jail and secure it), after loading it, before work, before operations (mandatory weapons check), and any other time I can think of. You never know.

Reminds me of two stories.

In training, after my second academy, we were being taken around our jurisdiction for a tour of some out-of-the way but notable places (one was the scene of on of the worst mass shootings in the country) and of some tunnels. Our FTOs lined up the newly minted officers and did a weapons check. I was the only one whose sidearm was actually loaded and ready to go. Two of the officers did not have loaded chambers, and two didn't even have magazines in their weapons. Nobody ever explained at the Academy that weapons should be "hot." Their were some butt-chewings and pushups.

The other one is the possibly true, possibly not story of a husband and wife duo who were both troopers and had the unfortunate habit of messing around with the other's sidearms. In one incident, husband loaded wife's weapon (thinking it was his) while she was taking a break from dry-firing. She returned to her practice and blasted their TV. Second incident was the opposite and worse. Husband on a traffic stop suddenly faced with an armed suspect pointing a weapon at him. First shot from the husband was a "click"," because his weapon didn't have aloaded chamber, apparently unloaded by the wife (turnabout is fair play). If I remember that one right, he did a good tap-rack-ready and center-punched his assailant, and came home from that one.

A couple months back, one of our guys asked me for a box of 9mm. Since we recently started issuing ammo for some backup and off-duty weapons (as opposed to making the guys buy it), I didn't think anything of it, since we mostly issue tens of thousands of rounds of .40 cal, since our issued duty weapons are SIG P229s. The next week, the guy came to me and said that all of his magazines were "rattling" badly, and he needed me to check them out. Hey, the weapons are starting to get old, and I have been replacing alot of magazine springs lately. I got into my trusty parts box, pulled out three new springs, and told him to unload his mags so that I can change the springs. He does so and spits out lots of gleaming 9mm rounds onto my desk (a P229 magazine will take .40, .357 SIG or 9mm without any problems). He had retired from another agency where they carried 9mms, and "9 millimeter" was slang for ANY pistol ammo (and this guy is a shooter and knew better). He had been walking around for several days with 9mm rounds in his .40 pistol. I just don't know how he chambered a round and holstered without the round falling out of the bore and onto the floor.

Point is ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS check your weapon. Then check it again, and have someone else check it for good measure. Survival habits should become a matter of routine, where you would no sooner think about leaving the house without checking your weapon for readiness than you would breathing.

A good reminder that might save someone's life.  

On a somewhat related note, where I work, we call our chambering round the "Barney" round.

I always press check the weapon when reholstering after it was out for awhile (like when I go into the jail and secure it), after loading it, before work, before operations (mandatory weapons check), and any other time I can think of. You never know.

Reminds me of two stories.

In training, after my second academy, we were being taken around our jurisdiction for a tour of some out-of-the way but notable places (one was the scene of on of the worst mass shootings in the country) and of some tunnels. Our FTOs lined up the newly minted officers and did a weapons check. I was the only one whose sidearm was actually loaded and ready to go. Two of the officers did not have loaded chambers, and two didn't even have magazines in their weapons. Nobody ever explained at the Academy that weapons should be "hot." Their were some butt-chewings and pushups.

The other one is the possibly true, possibly not story of a husband and wife duo who were both troopers and had the unfortunate habit of messing around with the other's sidearms. In one incident, husband loaded wife's weapon (thinking it was his) while she was taking a break from dry-firing. She returned to her practice and blasted their TV. Second incident was the opposite and worse. Husband on a traffic stop suddenly faced with an armed suspect pointing a weapon at him. First shot from the husband was a "click." If I remember that one right, he did a good tap-rack-ready and center-punched his assailant, and came home from that one.

A couple months back, one of our guys asked me for a box of 9mm. Since we recently started issuing ammo for some backup and off-duty weapons (as opposed to making the guys buy it), I didn't think anything of it, since we mostly issue tens of thousands of rounds of .40 cal, since our issued duty weapons are SIG P229s. The next week, the guy came to me and said that all of his magazines were "rattling" badly, and he needed me to check them out. Hey, the weapons are starting to get old, and I have been replacing alot of magazine springs lately. I got into my trusty parts box, pulled out three new springs, and told him to unload his mags so that I can change the springs. He does so and spits out lots of gleaming 9mm rounds onto my desk (a P229 magazine will take .40, .357 SIG or 9mm without any problems). He had retired from another agency where they carried 9mms, and "9 milimeter" was slang for ANY pistol ammo (and these guy is a shooter and knew better). He had been walking around for several days with 9mm rounds in his .40 pistol. I just don't know how he chambered a round and holstered without the round falling out of the bore and onto the floor.

Point is ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS check your weapon. Then check it again, and have someone else check it for good measure. Survival habits should become a matter of routine, where you would no sooner think about leaving the house without checking your weapon for readiness than you would breathing.

Confucious say- better an empty gun, you think is loaded- then a loaded gun you think is empty!

What's the big deal? Sure, I agree it's stupid, but it's no more a reason to cry than a mis-fire would be. Just tap-rack-and get on with it.