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.