1911 Handgun Conditions of Readiness

Do you carry your 1911 on a daily basis? Maybe once in a while? As a CCW perhaps? Well, how do you carry your firearm in terms of the Conditions of Readiness? Y'know, the legendary Jeff Cooper's system that defines the state of readiness of 1911-type handguns....

Condition 0 - A round is in the chamber, hammer is cocked, and the safety is off.
Condition 1 - Also known as "cocked and locked," means a round is in the chamber, the hammer is cocked, and the manual thumb safety on the side of the frame is applied.
Condition 2 - A round is in the chamber and the hammer is down.
Condition 3 - The chamber is empty and hammer is down with a charged magazine in the gun.
Condition 4 - The chamber is empty, hammer is down and no magazine is in the gun.

I found this very informative video on YouTube explaining these conditions. I also found a cool article on sightm1911.com about the advantages & disadvantages of each.



According to the article and as stated in the video as well, Condition Two is way problematic. The chances of an accidental discharge is so high that it's not worth it...

Condition Two is problematic for several reasons, and is the source of more negligent discharges than the other conditions. When you rack the slide to chamber a round in the 1911, the hammer is cocked and the manual safety is off. There is no way to avoid this with the 1911 design. In order to lower the hammer, the trigger must be pulled and the hammer lowered slowly with the thumb onto the firing pin, the end of which is only a few millimeters away from the primer of a live round. Should the thumb slip, the hammer would drop and fire the gun. Not only would a round be launched in circumstances which would be at best embarrassing and possibly tragic, but also the thumb would be behind the slide as it cycled, resulting in serious injury to the hand. A second problem with this condition is that the true 1911A1 does not have a firing pin block and an impact on the hammer which is resting on the firing pin could conceivably cause the gun to go off, although actual instances of this are virtually nonexistent. Finally, in order to fire the gun, the hammer must be manually cocked, again with the thumb. In an emergency situation, this adds another opportunity for something to go wrong and slows the acquisition of the sight picture.

These experts agree, Conditions One & Three are the intelligent ways to go... Now, if only they allow me to carry CCW in California...


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