For the most part, for self-defense carry, I wouldn't consider anything but Condition 1. When you really need to shoot, you need to shoot NOW, and too many things can go wrong with cocking hammers, Israeli draws (requires much practice), and other acrobatics. If I am carrying in the woods or in muck, I just carry in a flap holster, or sometimes I carry with a mag in and no round in the chamber. In the woods hunting, I don't worry as much about immediate self-defense, plus I am carrying a loaded 30/30.
All things being said, under usual conditions, a lot of things have to happen for all the safety features on a 1911 to fail in cond. 1 and the pistol discharge. Any loaded weapon, if dropped, can discharge. That's just physics. I believe carrying a 1911 cocked and locked is far safer than carrying a loaded revolver...maybe not. Then, too, how often are you guys dropping your weapons? I dropped a magazine in boot camp one time and I had to polish fired brass all evening with a tooth brush and rag and line them up in platoon formation on a table for inspection! You can bet I didn't drop anything else. Who knows what would have happened if I had dropped the actual weapon!
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