Another really good one and the reason that I carry a back up some days, is to arm another individual or loved one. Not everyone I know carries and handgun for self defense. Most are efficient enough to hold their own should the need ever arise. The legal matters only matter after the fact. Of course the firearm is to be used in a worst case scenario only. In most peoples eyes: being alive triumphs over getting killed.
Really?
This is serious?
I'd expect to hear these things coming from someone addicted to video games or action movies, but it would be a matter of some small concern if I were to hear them voiced in a training class I was teaching for either LE or private citizens.
In light of your desire to start a thread topic, though ...
The topic of secondary weapons has been debated ad nauseum over the decades. Mixed bag, at best.
I remember when proponents argued that the "backup" gun had to be in at least a caliber similar in power to that of the primary duty weapon (some folks liked the early CA Bulldog .44 spl for "big bore caliber" backup), while others accepted that handy size and ready employment could mitigate concerns regarding caliber "power" potential (.22 Mag was popular, in both kit-gun snub and 2-shot DA derringer).
I knew patrol guys who carried a Colt Commander or a S&W M19 snub as a secondary, and then down to the Colt DS .38 spl or the ubiquitous J-frame. A few guys carried the "lodge pin" Walther .380's or some little .25 ACP.
The Onion Field incident made more cops think about having
something, even if in some small caliber/handgun that might be missed during a cursory pat-down done by someone unfamiliar with actually searching for weapons, looking to disarm a cop.
I knew a guy who ended up off the road and trapped by his seat belt inside his patrol car, during the pursuit of a bank robbery suspect, and who also discovered that his hastily applied seat belt had captured his holstered duty weapon (another issue). The suspect saw the patrol car veer off the road and get caught in a ditch, and stopped his vehicle to run back and fire several rounds at the cop in his patrol car. Fortunately, my friend wasn't hit (although he suffered a rotator cuff injury unsuccessfully trying to wrench his gun free of the seat belt and holster). Now, if he'd had a secondary weapon, say in an ankle rig, of at least a .38 Spl or .380, he'd at least have had access to another weapon to use (dependent on the circumstances of it being able to be used, of course).
Nowadays, being in retirement mode, I don't often see the necessity of carrying a secondary weapon. I have any number of other things I
do like to remember to carry, though. Things like 2-3 folding knives, a practical light source (like my 4Sevens Mini ML-X), my cellphone, car fob, cigar cutter/punch, antiseptic wipes, some first aid supplies and/or nitrile gloves. Things that are actually used from day to day. I dislike ankle carry, and groin or AIWB doesn't appeal to me.
When I
do decide to carry a secondary weapon, it's usually something that easily tucks away, such as one of my J's or my LCP's, and sometimes, in the last couple of years, it's even one of the little NAA SA revolvers chambered in .22 LR or Mag (often referred to as gadgets or pocket jewelry, but which I still think of as occasional insurance against an onion field-type situation).
Spare mags? Sure. Handy, and the only way to effectively resolve a mag-related problem in a semiauto pistol.
Will most people (including off-duty cops, if not required by policy) do it, though? Hardly.
I've taught classes where a lot of private citizens expressed how they saw little need, or none, to think about carrying spare ammunition. Ditto cops in off-duty mode (unless required by policy, and presuming they followed policy).
A good friend of mine recently returned from helping teach at a large training venue for a while (several hundred cops over many days). He said he saw only 1 of them visibly carrying a spare mag on their own time. A lot of them carried guns, but only the one guy visibly carrying a spare mag. Granted, maybe some of them might've been stashing a spare (double stack) mag inside a pocket, which wouldn't be visible like when carried on a belt carrier.
Secondary weapons? Most people find it burdensome enough just to carry a primary weapon with any consistency. The majority of the private citizens I've taught over the years (with CCW licenses) said they didn't carry their licensed weapons all the time, or even with any regularity.
Cops? Another mixed bag. The last time I listened to a major national trainer discuss statistics of actively employed cops carrying off-duty, if I remember right it seemed the statistics he discussed indicated that it may as low as barely 20% of active cops go armed on their own time. As a LE trainer, I'd be happy to get a significant number of them to just consider carrying a "primary" off-duty weapon, without going out of my way to worry about them carrying a secondary.
I don't get involved in trying to advocate one way or the other for the carrying of a secondary weapon
on-duty, but if someone chooses to do so (and it's within policy), I think it practical to require they demonstrate they can use it to the same standards required for the
primary duty weapon. No way to predict it won't have to serve as the "primary" under some conditions.
For off-duty or private citizens? Well, that can be discussed at length and go in a number of directions (presuming it's lawful in any particular jurisdiction, and within policy for off-duty cops).
Those private citizens who decide they need to carry more guns and ammo going about their daily activities than most cops may carry on-duty in the same areas? Well, that's another subject.
