CCW - Do you use the safety?

If it has a safety, I use it. If it doesn't, I don't. My Kahr doesn't and it is what I carry most of the time. When I carry my 1911 or PPK/s, I use the safety. If the Kahr had a safety I would use it. I like safeties, but sometimes the virtues of other features override that preference.

It depends quiet a bit on the trigger too. On a DA/SA pistol the manual safety isn't much needed. But on a 1911 or SA AMT, you want that safety on. The AMT actually has TWO positive safeties: grip & a thumb safety.

Having/using a safety doesn't cause complacency. That method of thinking is old and antiquated. America's favorite rifle: AR15 has a safety. Most people carry with that safety on. Most bolt action rifles have a thumb safety on the bolt, most people use that. Safeties just add to the manual of arms for a weapon. A safety never makes a weapon "safe" only "safer." None of us here will load up a 1911, cocked with the safety on, waving it around saying "Don't worry everyone, the safety is ON!" That is an accident waiting to happen. The rules are the primary safety, with whatever bell/whistle/mechanic on the weapon as secondary safety.

Some guns I just would not carry in the first place

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Yep...and anything with a 22-lb trigger pull falls squarely in that category.

A 1911 in condition 1 warrants a safety. Modern striker fired ones like the Ruger SR line, it's idiotic and unnecessary........in my opinion.

LD

Own one auto that does not have a safety. Would never concider carring it untill I installed a NY 2 triger spring. Now trigger pull is what you would expect on a double action revolver, aproximately 12lbs. AD's and glock leg is what these guns are best known for. Well that and "prefection" if you drink the Kool Aid.
Daily carry is a Smith snub.

just for fun said:

Own one auto that does not have a safety. Would never concider carring it untill I installed a NY 2 triger spring. Now trigger pull is what you would expect on a double action revolver, aproximately 12lbs. AD's and glock leg is what these guns are best known for. Well that and "prefection" if you drink the Kool Aid.
Daily carry is a Smith snub.

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AD's? You mean the guns go off without the trigger being pulled all the way to the rear? That is scary....

A 1911 in condition 1 warrants a safety.

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Actually...If the thumb safety on a 1911 is not engaged, it is, by definition, not in condition 1...

YES 1911 safety on~!

Carry Rotation:

Primary - Sig 239 carried as designed ...chambered and decocked
Secondary- 642.... it be what it be
Occasionally- PPK... chambered, decocked, safety OFF

PPK safety is too stiff for purposeful use.

And ...

Browning did not design the firearm with a thumb safety. It was added upon request of the Army. And not for preventing a discharge. But rather, to 'lock' the slide while the calavary soldier was reholstering.

I'm in the process of transitioning from carrying 1911s to Glocks, and have decided to go exclusively with the Glocks - it sure simplifies things. Currently carrying a G30, just picked up a G26, and have a G36 on the way. So my answer was yes, now it's N/A....

I always sweep the safety after the firearm comes out of the holster, whether there's a safety or not, DA or SA or not. You're not going to remember to change your draw stroke details when your frightened out of your mind for you or someone else's safety so always carry what you've trained to do and keep the variations of that training to a minimum.

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IMHO this is the best practice if your going to rotate MOAs, It also serves to eliminate some MOAs from being acceptable. For myself safetys must go down to fire up for safe so most slide mounted safetys are out.

I carry my 1911 with the thumb safety engaged. My other handguns are DAO autos, or revolvers, without safety levers. I learned handgunning with a 1911, and have never forgotten to engage the 1911 thumb safety as necessary.

I can only speculate whether I would reflexively engage a 1911 thumb safety, had I started with a different weapon system; I can be fairly clumsy and absent-minded. Notably, I did not carry a 1911 from mid-2002 to early 2012, just DA handguns and Glocks, but as soon as I tried the 1911 again, all was well with safety manipulation, immediately, for which I am grateful.

I did try a Third-Generation S&W auto, the 3913, in the 1990s, which has a safety lever that operates in the reverse direction, compared to a 1911, and while I never forgot the safety, I worried about it, and soon sold the 3913. I could carry it off-safe, but worried about actually thumbing it down while drawing, which would actually put it on safe when I needed it to fire.

None of my SD guns have safeties (Glocks, Kahr, Revolvers) so I obviously don't use them. I prefer to keep my "manual of arms" as similar as possible bewteen SD guns. If I carried a SA semiauto like the 1911 or Hi-Power it would be Condition 1 with the safey engaged.