> saw a video where someone 3 yards away draws a machete and runs at the other person.

It's probably best to be realistic about what is possible. If somebody tried to whack you on the sidewalk with a machete, they would win 100% of the time, because you're not living 24/7 in a hyper-alert paranoid state keeping an incredibly close eye on everyone 360° around you. Unless you've drawn your weapon 100s of times in near-miss scenarios on people who look like they might be grabbing a weapon because their phone is in a coat pocket or something, it's just the truth. If you're going to live in a society you just kind of have to accept that you could hypothetically be killed in broad daylight by a very-motivated someone with no real opportunity to defend yourself. Happens to organized crime members all the time, and obviously they have way way more reason to be paranoid than regular people.

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gottorf 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

> If you're going to live in a society you just kind of have to accept that you could hypothetically be killed in broad daylight by a very-motivated someone with no real opportunity to defend yourself.

This is absolutely true, but security in depth, right? Just because it's easy for you to die in public, whether from a premeditated attack or an accident, doesn't mean it's pointless to add on a few layers to make that less likely. After all, everything happens in the margins.

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relaxing 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

> everything happens in the margins

including accidentally shooting yourself, accidentally shooting the wrong person, getting shot by someone else who misread who was the good guy with the gun and the bad guy with the gun, and turning it on yourself when the pressure of it all gets to be too much.

	▲	BeetleB 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		I don't think anyone in this thread disagrees with you on this. Keep in mind that your point is orthogonal to the topic of whether you should have a round in the barrel or not. Everything you say here applies to both cases. (Well, OK, there's a tiny marginally higher chance of accidentally shooting yourself).

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BeetleB 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Indeed. I know someone who owns a gun and lives in a very sketchy area. The previous tenant in the apartment was a drug dealer, so sketchy people keep knocking on the door.

Making it very clear that he owns a gun effectively drives all of them away.

But that's where you make clear you have a gun. Concealed carry, by definition, is hiding that fact. There are pros and cons to open carry, but IMO, if you want the gun to act as a deterrent, open carry probably is a lot more effective than concealed carry.

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BeetleB 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Completely agree.

But let's extend the distance to 5 yards. Or 8 yards. Or whatever. There is a distance threshold where racking vs not racking makes a difference. It's not a thin threshold. You probably gain a decent number of yards by not having to rack.

Lots of things can go wrong while carrying a handgun (with or without a round in the chamber). I don't recommend people do it unless they are aware of a specific threat. But once you are under a specific threat, then it doesn't really make sense to carry it without a round in the chamber.