If or when you decide to legally carry a handgun for self-defense and after deciding on a particular model to suit your needs, you have one more decision to make: to carry or not carry spare ammunition, i.e., a reload. I've found this to be an interesting question to ask of the numerous professionals I know who have gone or currently do go to bad places filled with bad people who will kill them if the opportunity presents itself. Some, now retired, still go loaded for bear while others are quite comfortable with almost any handgun and no reload.

I've gone back and questioned both groups, and, to a man, when pressed hard on the subject, they will admit that whatever is going to happen is going to be solved with what ammo is in their gun. Then some will quickly add that having more ammo is very comforting for the exception.

The decision to carry spare ammo is often based on whether the person perceives a real need for a gun at all. Obviously, the what, when, where and why of locale drives the answer to the question of whether to carry spare ammunition.

For someone who simply wants to have the means of self-defense “just in case,” he already has the belief that he probably will, at worst, have to display his handgun or indicate that he is armed with one, so the concept of carrying additional rounds is the furthest thing from his mind. And if he does entertain the thought, it would be quickly dismissed as unnecessary or idle fantasy.

For others who are, by job or circumstances, thrust daily into the worst areas of civilization, the oft-repeated axiom of “one gun is none, two guns are one” becomes the operative mantra, with lots of spare ammo (and probably more guns) carried as well. In some large cities that also have particularly violent sections it is not unusual for some lawmen to carry up to four handguns while working and spare ammo for all of them (with long guns in their vehicles as well). These folks think they are going light when off duty by downloading to “only” two guns. They are also responding to crimes--“running to the sound of the guns.” Their practices are not those normally encountered by the legally armed citizen.

In both of these extremes, the often visceral driving force is how they have perceived the amount of danger and made the necessary mental and physical accommodation to come to terms with being so threatened. As I see it, carrying lots of guns and ammunition with the thought of using all of them in a non-law enforcement encounter is, most kindly put, wild speculation. Doing so, though, is mentally comforting since most folks subscribe to--and I can't argue with this--the thinking that “more is better.” Besides, if doing so does make you comfortable, and you are then more self-assured (not acting like a victim), then, arguably, the extra baggage has served its purpose well.

I do see two very defendable reasons for carrying at least one spare reload. The first is that all guns can and will malfunction or jam sometime. With semiauto pistols, the overwhelming cause of these is a defective magazine or one not fully inserted. All but one feedway stoppage lend themselves to a simple malfunction-clearing drill.