Pistol Carry Conditions: How to Stay Loaded and Safe

Table of Contents

• What are Carry Conditions?
• Condition 4 - Unloaded & Clear
• Condition 3 - Empty Chamber a.k.a. "Israeli Carry"
• Condition 2 - Chambered, Hammer Down
• Condition 1 - Safety Activated
• Condition 0 - Just Press the Trigger
• What's the Best Carry Condition?
• Choosing a Concealed Carry Pistol Holster

Pop quiz: if you needed to fire your carry pistol right now, how fast could you do it? This might be a question of life and death, because in a self-defense scenario, every fraction of a second counts. When you make the decision that lethal force is required, there's no time to waste. However, firearm safety is also a priority that must be considered — it's obviously unwise to walk around all day with your finger on the trigger just in case you need to shoot quickly. This delicate balance between speed and safety leads us to the subject of carry conditions.

What are Carry Conditions?

Every gun owner should know the fundamental safety rule "treat every gun as if it's loaded." That said, you should also know if it's loaded (or isn't loaded) at all times. You never want to be surprised by your gun going "bang" when it's supposed to go "click" or vice versa. This status — whether ready to fire the instant the trigger is pressed, completely unloaded and clear, or anything in between — is known as the condition of the weapon.

Above: Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper has been called "the father of the modern technique of the pistol." However, as with all things, pistol shooting technique has continued to evolve over time. (Photo via NRA American Rifleman magazine)

Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Cooper was a U.S. Marine combat veteran and firearm instructor who founded the American Pistol Institute (now known as Gunsite Training Center) in 1976 and developed many of the foundational principles of modern defensive pistol shooting. Cooper also formalized five conditions of readiness in which a pistol — specifically a Colt 1911, his pistol of choice — can be carried.

Read on as we study these pistol carry conditions and explain which one we recommend.

Condition 4 - Unloaded & Clear

The phrase "unload and show clear" is familiar to anyone who has shot a competition stage, since it's the standard procedure for emptying a weapon after completing a stage. It's typically followed by "if clear, hammer down" to instruct the shooter to send the slide forward on an empty chamber and press the trigger, proving their gun is clear of all ammunition.

Condition 4 is what you'll end up in after following these instructions. Here's a quick checklist, where each ❌ indicates one measure that prevents the gun from firing:

• ❌ Magazine removed
• ❌ Chamber empty
• ❌ Hammer/striker not cocked
• ❌ Safety on (if applicable/possible)

Obviously, short of removing all the rounds from your magazine and putting them back in the box they came in, this is about as far from being ready to shoot as you can possibly get. Unless you're preparing to do some dry fire practice or you're only carrying a firearm for ceremonial purposes, nobody carries in Condition 4.

Condition 3 - Empty Chamber a.k.a. "Israeli Carry" 

Above: A student racks the slide on his Glock during a malfunction drill at a BRVO Tactical pistol course. "Israeli carry" requires a shooter to rack the slide to chamber a round before firing.

If we take one step closer to rendering the pistol ready to fire, we end up in Condition 3, which is often called "Israeli carry":

• ✅ Magazine inserted
• ❌ Chamber empty
• ❌ Hammer/striker not cocked
• ❌ Safety on (if applicable/possible)

The History of So-Called "Israeli Carry"

This nickname came from the Israel Defense Force (IDF) teaching its conscripted soldiers to carry defensive pistols without a round in the chamber, but the concept dates back much further than that.

Above: Fairbairn and Sykes' book, Shooting to Live, was based on gunfights the authors experienced while working with the Shanghai Municipal Police in the 1930s. (Photos courtesy of Naval & Military Press)

Empty chamber carry was primarily derived from a 1942 book called Shooting to Live With the One-Hand Gun by Captain William Fairbairn and Captain Eric Sykes. Those two men were pioneers in the field of combatives, having heavily influenced the training given to Allied forces in WWII. However, the world has changed a lot since the early 1940s, and by modern standards, much of the pistol shooting technique taught by Fairbairn and Sykes seems extremely archaic.

Watch some of this 1944 U.S. Army pistol training film to see for yourself:

Back then, holding the gun with both hands to control recoil was mostly used for prone and kneeling positions, and firing from a standing position was typically done one-handed by default. When two hands were used, it was often in the old "teacup" grip (a relic of the revolver era). You'll also notice safety violations that would get you kicked off the range today — like flagging the instructor with a pistol, as seen at 2:50 in the video — weren't perceived as a problem at that time.

To turn back the clock even further, it could be argued that Condition 3 empty chamber carry is actually a byproduct of the Old West era of single-action revolvers.

Above: A cowboy near Sturgis, South Dakota carrying his revolver in a leather holster, circa 1887. (Photo via U.S. Library of Congress)

Cowboys and lawmen would frequently carry with only five rounds loaded in their six-shooters, leaving the hammer forward on an empty chamber. This was because revolvers at that time weren't drop safe — any hard impact, such as a bumpy horseback ride, could cause the hammer to tap the percussion cap and fire inadvertently. Empty chamber carry was a primitive way to prevent the gun from going off inside the holster.

Should You Ever Carry on an Empty Chamber?

All this historical context should serve as a reminder that carrying on an empty chamber is, in our opinion, a relic of the past, especially when it comes to modern concealed carry pistols. In an urgent self-defense situation, drawing your pistol and racking the slide before firing is slower, requires both hands, and may induce misfeeds or other malfunctions. It's simply not necessary if you carry a modern firearm that's properly engineered and built, while also following the four fundamental safety rules.

Condition 2 - Chambered, Hammer Down

Above: The Beretta PX4 Storm is one example of a double-action/single-action pistol that might be carried in Condition 2.

Next on the list of carry conditions is Condition 2, which specifies a round in the chamber but the hammer decocked:

• ✅ Magazine inserted
• ✅ Chamber loaded
• ❌ Hammer/striker not cocked
• ❌ Safety on (if applicable/possible)

If you're a fan of double-action/single-action (DA/SA) pistols like the Beretta 92, SIG P226, or CZ 75, Condition 2 may be your preference. This condition allows the user to draw the pistol and pull through the double-action trigger, cocking the hammer and firing the gun with a single trigger press.

Above: Instructor Raul Martinez of Rogue Methods discussing the double-action trigger pull on a snubnose revolver.

The only disadvantage to Condition 2 for DA/SA pistols is that you'll need to train enough to still get accurate hits with the longer and heavier DA trigger pull. For guns with nicely tuned triggers, that's not too difficult, but some pistols can require as much as 15 pounds of pressure to fire the first shot. In a stressful situation, that may lead to reduced accuracy unless you've practiced extensively with the DA trigger.

However, for single-action-only (SAO) pistols like the 1911 and 2011 — where the trigger can't be pulled through to cock the hammer — Condition 2 is less than ideal. It involves drawing the pistol and manually thumbing the hammer to the rear before firing, an awkward movement unless you're a cowboy action shooting expert. For SAO pistols, there's a better option below...

Condition 1 - Safety Activated

Above: Staccato 2011 pistols feature large ambidextrous safety levers to make it easy to deactivate the safety smoothly during the draw.

If you carry a gun with a manual safety — especially a SAO hammer-fired pistol such as a 1911 or 2011 — you're likely carrying it in Condition 1. This means:

• ✅ Magazine inserted
• ✅ Chamber loaded
• ✅ Hammer/striker cocked
• ❌ Safety on (if applicable/possible)

To fire a shot, the gun is drawn and the safety is deactivated as it comes up on target, then the trigger is pressed. With sufficient practice and skill, it's entirely possible to fire from Condition 1 in under a second.

Condition 0 - Just Press the Trigger

In Condition 0, the pistol is loaded, chambered, cocked, and the manual safety (if present) is deactivated. As soon as you press the trigger, the gun will fire. In summary:

• ✅ Magazine inserted
• ✅ Chamber loaded
• ✅ Hammer/striker cocked
• ✅ Safety off

To properly discuss Condition 0, we need to consider the gun it's being used on.

Lt. Col. Cooper discussed Condition 0 in the context of the classic Colt 1911, so he didn't recommend it as a carry position for obvious reasons. The Series 70 1911 action, which is still used in many 1911s and 2011s today, lacks a firing pin safety and is therefore not always drop safe. Combine this with the very light and short trigger pull on many of these guns, and you'll understand why carrying them with the safety activated is a wise precaution. The safety lever size and placement makes it easy to deactivate, so there's not much of a drawback.

For modern polymer striker-fired pistols — especially those designed from day one without external safeties, like the ubiquitous Glock — it's a different story. Condition 0 is the preferred carry condition for these pistols, since they feature many internal safety measures to prevent an accidental discharge unless the trigger is deliberately pressed. These may include any or all of the following:

• Trigger safety
• Firing pin block safety
• Drop safety
• Grip safety

Technically, one could argue that striker-fired pistols with internal safeties are actually Condition 1 until all those safeties have been deactivated — meaning that resting a finger on the trigger is the only way to reach Condition 0 — but that's a matter of semantics.

What's the Best Carry Condition?

The answer to this question depends on your priorities. If speed is what you're looking for — as pointed out in the intro, speed is critical for self-defense — carrying in Condition 0 is undeniably the easiest way to achieve a fast draw. It requires the least steps before firing. Just draw, aim, and press the trigger.

Condition 1 is the way to go for 1911 and 2011 users, and it's a good choice for striker-fired handgun users who want the extra reassurance of a manual safety. As long as your pistol has an easily accessible safety lever design and you're willing to put in some time practicing, you can achieve a very fast draw from Condition 1.

Condition 2 is viable for DA/SA pistols, as long as you're able to maintain accuracy despite the longer and heavier first trigger pull.

We wouldn't recommend conditions 3 or 4 for any form of serious self-defense carry. They're simply too slow, reliant on manual dexterity, and prone to inducing malfunctions. In a situation where tenths of a second may spell the difference between life and death, you may not have time to chamber a round or load a magazine before firing the first shot.

If you need any more convincing, go watch some videos of self-defense incidents involving empty-chamber or "Israeli" carry:

In this example, the armed defender is relatively fast racking the slide, but even that fraction of a second was enough to put him at a significant disadvantage and allow the armed robbers to escape. Here's another example where the defender does not survive (viewer discretion advised).

Choosing a Concealed Carry Pistol Holster

Loaded and Safe Concealment was founded on the principle of creating concealed carry holsters that perfectly balance speed and safety. Our Kydex holsters are designed to hold your pistol securely on your waistline all day without shifting or sagging, and they feature positive retention feel that gives you confidence that the gun will stay holstered until you need it. At the same time, they're precisely molded and cut to enable a lightning-fast draw without unnecessary drag that could slow you down.

Keep your carry pistol loaded and safe — check out our new Kaizen holster series at LASConcealment.com.