Non 1911 "cocked and locked"

Hello All,

Hopefully I'm not beating a dead horse here, but I'm trying to gain
some understanding of the shared wisdom and opinions regarding
concealed carry and safety from negligent discharge. I live in a CCW
friendly state, and have a CCW mainly just because I can (and it
streamlines the purchase process). Lately I've been thinking that I
ought to actually carry more.

To progress along those lines, I've been carrying my various pistols
out in public to get a feel for what works and what doesn't. I've
been carrying them in condition 3 to get used to the weight, use of
cover garment, going to the bathroom, etc. I realize this isn't a
good way to carry for personal defense, I consider it practice and a
step ahead of where I was a couple of months ago. I can get a small
9mm into church or out on a date w/out my wife noticing (shows how
boring your dates get after mumble mumble years of marriage, but I
digress). Now that it's starting to get colder I can carry a clone of
an officer's ACP in an IWB holster so long as I remember not to strip
down too far once I get where I'm going.

A friend has a Taurus PT-145 which is a very compact package for 10+1
rounds of 45 ACP. It also rattles less than my clone (I can hear the
grip safety rattle when I jump around--it probably isn't as loud as it
sounds, but I can hear it) I think I can conceal the taurus pretty
well, but would be violating rule 2 while it's holstered. I cover
various important parts of my body when it's in the holster. The
holster covers the trigger, but some options (belly-band) cover it
with material rather than stiff leather. I've put off buying one of
these since I'm not sure how much I'd trust it. Note that the new
versions of these are single action, with a frame safety. Taurus' web
page states that it:

"carries three safety features including the manual safety lever,
trigger block mechanism and a firing pin block"

My friend also points out that the Officer's clone is covering parts
of my body while it's holstered, and he is correct. For some reason
"cocked and locked" on a 1911 seems perfectly fine, but the same
condition on a plastic gun seems bad. I"m also thinking of this gun
for deeper concealment, and pointing at _more_ important parts of my
body. I don't mind sticking a double action pocket pistol in my
pocket (in a pocket holster that covers the trigger) and it might be
aimed at my knee at some point during the day, but this also fails to
bother me. So, maybe it's just me but I would like to solicit
opinions.

Could somebody step me through the failure mechanism that would have
to exist for the gun to go off w/out the trigger being pulled? I
guess something breaks, something else slips out of a notch, and the
hammer falls. Does the "hammer block safety" above then intervene
before the hammer causes the gun to fire? When practicing a draw with
his Taurus from his tuckable holsterI got my shirt snagged in the
safety lever. This was enough to move the safety off (and rip the
shirt). This was also condition 3, my 2nd or third try from under a
tucked shirt, and my finger was not on the trigger so there were no
other problems, but the safety did disengage.

Am I doing something wrong, holster-wise? Is it reasonable to expect
a holstered gun to comply with rule 2? I don't expect my cased guns
to do this, but perhaps I'm being remiss. If you can point me to
something that somebody has already written on this, that would also
be helpful.

Thanks,


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