Heinz, because if your life depends on a 1911A1, then you don't want to waste a second (but read all, I agree with you, [img]biggrin.gif[/img] ).
One day I was working patrol supervisor and I received a vehicle, as I "hot-seated it" (you re-dispatch it and it doesn't sit overnight in the motor pool), I noticed a hole in the upper right windshield. I went to the desk sergeant and said, "hey there's a %&^^*& gun shot in the windshield!" He said, "oh yeah, meant to tell you about that".
Turns out a pizza delivery guy was stopped at a stop sign, a guy walked up to him and shot him, right in front of one of our patrol cars. The sergeant in the car, locked and loaded, chased after the guy and lost him. Since we weren't supposed to carry locked and loaded, he unloaded it, unfortunanately he unloaded incorrectly and popped a cap through the windshield...
(They caught the guy later that night, the patrolmen had caught most of the license plate)
So, if your life depends on every second, I would rather carry locked and loaded then to not carry locked and loaded.
With the gun empty, I practiced unholstering, locking and loading many, many times. That was because the rules were you weren't supposed to carry locked and loaded, although John Browning said it was safe...
Sooo....
{But Heinz, I don't see a reason to carry my P08 locked and loaded unless it is a combat zone either}
<img src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" />