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Nothing in life is 100%. Most all of us, if not all of us, carry to be sure that we get home safely at night. We carry what we think we need to be able to do so. I usually carry a .45 rather than my 9mm because of the slight ballistics edge. So like everyone else I'm hedging my bets.
That being said, while I don't have reservations about someone dual carrying I'm just not seeing that for most people it is giving you much. Sort of like buying one extra lottery ticket to improve your odds. Sure it does improve them, but at a mathematical insignificant level. Here's where I am coming from:
Most civilian involved gun fights last 3-15 seconds depending on who's stats you read. What is the likelihood that in that 3-15 seconds of panic you are going to realize you have a jam, process that mentally, and then pull out a second weapon either with your weak side hand or awkwardly with your strong side hand, bring it down on target and start firing accurately instead of just running like hell are diving behind the biggest anything available? Data apparently shows that LEOs can grab a BUG faster than they can reload their primary weapon. I would think that depends on a lot of factors, but even assuming that is universally true, LEOs get into a lot of situations that we, as civilians, are highly unlikely to ever encounter.
How small of a percentage of us are ever going to use our pistol for self-defense? And then how many of those pistols are going to jam? If you carry a quality firearm with ammo you have tested through that firearm and KNOW that it feeds reliably, you keep your firearm in good, clean, lubricated condition, you shoot it regularly enough to maintain your skill level and ensure that it is working properly and you rotate out your SD ammo to keep it fresh (all things we each should be doing) what are the odds that pistol will jam on you when you need it?
I'm guessing that the odds that the average OC/CC citizen living a normal life is going to be in a lethal self-defense situation, draw their firearm, discharge their firearm and then have that firearm jam, is probably worse than winning the lottery. Throw in there the odds of being able to recognize the problem and draw another weapon and continue the self-defense situation, and I bet the odds of that are worse than winning the lottery twice.
But hey, I usually carry an extra mag primarly in case of a type II due to mag malfunction, so I'm not one to talk. I'm just thinking through this. Maybe one of you is going to say something that is going to convince me to at least carry the extra mag 100% of the time, to carry a BUG or maybe even carry 2 pistols myself.
