We’ve all done it: We’ve slipped down to the store, packing just a J-Frame, and sometimes we don’t even have a reload onboard. Tsk-tsk. Or, the emergency tool option is a light, compact .380 pistol, because “you’ve got to have a gun” but don’t want the hassle of a “real” gun.
One of my friends in the gun writing biz, James Tarr, can always be found packing a hi-cap 9mm and a spare magazine or two. Another longtime friend of mine, a retired chief of police, packs not only a full-sized all-steel 1911 — with spare magazines — but he carries a backup gun, a reload for that one as well, and a tourniquet.
Every time I think, “Maybe I’ll go light today,” I think about them, and I wonder…