by Talk show personalities, whether conservative or liberal, are in love with the sound of their own voice. It doesn’t matter to them whether they are right or wrong on the details so long as it helps their ratings.
A case in point is Michael Savage who hosts The Savage Nation. On Tuesday, he postulated that George Zimmerman is at least guilty of manslaughter due to a round in the chamber of his Kel Tec PF-9.
From the transcript at the Daily Caller:
Savage laid out his case, saying that the murder could have been avoided, but based on Zimmerman’s gun having a round in the chamber with the safety off, Zimmerman intended “to find some he could shoot or intimidate.”
“Zimmerman was carrying a Kel Tec semi-automatic 9mm handgun,” Savage said. “So? Big deal. It is a big deal because he had a bullet chambered in the gun and he had the safety off… Had he not chambered a round prior to meeting Trayvon, and had he not taken the safety off, even if Trayvon, during the altercation even if Trayvon had tried to grab the gun away from Zimmerman — had that gun not been chambered with a round and safety off, Trayvon Martin would have had to use two hands. You can’t do it with one hand.”
“Many of you don’t own guns,” Savage said. “He would have had to let go of Zimmerman. He would have had to stop punching him. He would have had to take both hands on the gun, hold the pistol grip with one, pull the top back to chamber a round and then he would have had to unlock the safety, during which time the mixed-martial-artist-in-training Mr. Zimmerman would have had time to throw him off and pound the hell out of him. But because Zimmerman carried a loaded weapon with the safety off, Trayvon Martin is dead. Therefore, the responsibility is in the hands of Zimmerman.
“I don’t care which side you are on,” Savage continued. “He wasn’t just carrying a gun, he wasn’t just a watch guy: He was hunting. He was looking, he was hoping to find someone he could shoot or intimidate with that loaded weapon, ladies and gentlemen of the Savage jury.”
I’m sure some of Savage’s fans are nodding their heads up and down agreeing with him. If so, they are as much a blithering idiot as Savage is himself.
Why?
Because the damn gun doesn’t have an external safety. From Kel Tec’s own description of the PF-9: “Firing mechanism is Double-Action Only with an automatic hammer block safety.”
Even if Savage is a proponent of the Israeli method of draw and rack with a double somersault tossed in for good measure, it is possible draw and rack the slide with one hand.
While I am sure that there still may be some instructors out there who will argue for the empty chamber, draw and rack method, I think the overwhelming consensus is that if you are going to carry, you carry with a loaded chamber or what is otherwise known as Condition 1.
Back in the stone age, when I was a firearms instructor in the Marines, we were teaching how to chamber a round one handed. Simple things like changing a magazine can become a ordeal when you lose the use of one of your hands or arms. It was funny watching a bunch of staff NCO's trying to get the hang of the one handed thing. Of course we did teach that if you were going into the shit, coked and locked. I still carry a 1911 and I carry it cocked and locked. It's call the tactical advantage. You can be shot several times while you are trying to chamber a round.
The fact that Zimmerman was carrying a gun with a round chambered should not even be a issue. The issue should be that a over 6 ft, 175 pound teenager had him on his back and was beating the living piss out of him. The pictures I saw of Zimmerman's wounds bear that out.
IMNSHO Savage is a big blowhard. To be taken in very small doses.
Yeah, I'm afraid Michael Savage's firearms knowledge stops around 1911 types which I love but their are other operating systems. The PF-9 is a double action only and of course you are going to rack it before carrying. Otherwise it's just a rock. I wonder what Savage would have said if Zimmerman was carrying a revolver, a firearm whose only safety is to keep the finger off the trigger, or would he have insisted it was murder in waiting for loading all six chambers?
Talk about biting the hand that has fed you. A couple years ago Savage was touting some collectible Kel-Tec.
All I can say is that if Savage did spout this crap he should IMMEDIATELY apologize to everyone for being an idiot. Come on man! Research your topic before opening your pie hole!
The idiot blowhard also said, "I’m an independent observer and I call them as I see them, and I think Zimmerman committed what he’s being charged with: manslaughter."
Zimmerman wasn't charged with manslaughter, but the idiot isn't about to let facts influence his opinion.
He is still trying to get the Brits to let him back into England.. so hes shameleesly preaching gun grabbing now.. what a whack job.
The complete disconnect from reality is so hard to grasp that I can barely write anything. Zimmerman is guilty of manslauter simply because he carried a loaded weapon? If only he had been carrying an unloaded weapon, Martin would have stopped pounding on him long enough for Zimmerman to pound on Martin instead? It's so utterly confused you have to wonder what the hell is going on in Savage's head.
Do these people share even one coherent thought among them?
So is a cop carrying a Glock with a round in the chamber, and no external safety…hunting? Savage is an idiot who clearly knows NOTHING about defense of self with a firearm. He has demonstrated that quite plainly.
Condition 1 it is… And just one MOAR reason why I don't listen to talk radio… sigh…
In 22 years of law enforcement I have only known one LEO to carry that way and he was a firearms instructor. During one training session, he demonstrated his "superior" manner of carrying and managed to send a round not down range but perpendicular to the line of fire. He never lived that down. Fortuneately there was no one to his left when he demonstrated it.
Oh, there was a second guy in different agency. He was ordered to carry with one in the chamber, refused to and was asked to resign in lieu of termination. That agency even now has a policy in writing that a round is in a chamber.
I was a avid lisenter of savage nation when this incident happened. It just so happens that a good friend of mine also had a Kel Tec pf-9 we heard the topic while out on a late night session drive to listen to the Savage Nation. I have to say that I tried calling the show to talk with the man himself to try and find the mystery safety. I will say that I tried calling in more than once and for multiple days just to prove that there is no safety Kel Tec PF-9. The only real safety is not squeezing the trigger