Just had to reassess 'two guns' carry after a pal got into a tussle and one of his guns was yanked (SOB carry) by one of the attackers. Apparently it would be extremely difficult to 'fight to retain' both guns in a physical tussle.
It would kinda be a legal nightmare too explaining shooting a man who had your gun. Could come across as a 'plant' especially if eye-witnesses namely his cronies testifies that he was not armed.
Maybe better to go with a high quality gun and train our nails off. Hmmh..what do you think?
SOB carry is not very "tactical." I hope all felons I encounter in the future (I wear a badge) are carrying 0400 to 0800, because they must put their arms most of the way into an arm-lock to reach their weapons, and even if I am not close enough to finish applying that arm lock, they are certainly making their draw-strokes obvious.
Regarding legal nightmares, Step One is to prevail on the street. Part of prevailing on the street is to avoid being in places where bad guys and their cronies are the norm, if at all possible. (Obviously, not all of us have that choice, as much as we would like.)
If "plant" refers to a "throw-down" gun, well, if I have purchased a gun from a licensed dealer, and/or fired a "qual" with a gun, for the record, it is forever linked to me, so opposing counsel would have to allege that I willingly armed an opponent with a deadly weapon, in order to then "defend" myself. (A person is still a danger, even though "down.")
We must be responsible for the security of every weapon we carry, so I do not advocate or recommend multiple firearms. This is a very individual choice.
I do tend to carry multiple handguns. One reason is because a weapon can break; one of my duty sixguns sustained a broken mainspring, back in the 1980s, and I have been rather religious about second guns since that day.
A second reason I carry multiple handguns is because I am fairly ambidextrous, with my left hand being better with single-action and "safe-action" triggers, while my right hand/arm are a bit better with long-stroke DA and with the dynamics of the draw; left-handed, but right-armed, more or less. It just seems natural, to me, to have a weapon available to each hand.
A third reason to carry multiple weapons is because I can carry legally in places where my wife cannot. One of the guns on my person might well be her gun, or one of mine with which she is familiar. Even if she can carry legally, women's clothing does not always conceal handguns very well, whereas I tend to wear sturdy belts and substantial cover garments.
A fourth reason to carry two guns is balance. The couple of times I really tweaked my lower back, I found it much less painful to carry a balanced load of one snubby on each side.
Then, there is the NY reload, a term first popularized, IIRC, by a Mas Ayoob article on the late, great NYPD gunfighter Jim Cirillo. In an environment where armed thugs run in groups, the ability to present another weapon, rather than call time-out to reload, seems a good idea. FWIW, Texas Rangers were carrying multiple revolvers in the days of the Republic of Texas, and have been known to maintain that habit with autos, so this was not an invention of NY LEOs, but an example of great minds thinking alike.
In my case, with long but narrow hands, skinny medium-to-short fingers, and rather short thumbs, snubbies fit me rather well. (I can get all of my fingers on the grip of an SP101.) If any weapon can easily be carried in multiples, it is snubbies, and they benefit the most from the NY reload concept, due to low ammo capacity in the cylinder, and a shorter ejector rod that can potentially complicate a clean ejection.
Back to weapon retention; ideally, one should be able to defend both the primary and back-up from a gun-grab attempt. This contra-indicates carrying on the belt on opposite sides, or spaced too-widely apart. Fairly compact weapons can be carried with one just behind the point of the hip, and the second a bit forward of the hip, either "appendix" or cross-draw. Some carry right and left AIWB, which is still close enough for one forearm to provide some level of coverage. I have tried all three of these, over time, over three decades of carrying.
Recently, I have another reason to carry a second gun, as arthritis in my right hand and wrist has caused a change in my training emphasis, and a move to gentler-recoiling 9mm Glocks. (I still carry .40 at work; 9mm has been considered by the chief, but not yet OK'ed.) With my left hand becoming my "primary" hand, but three decades of habitually reaching for 0300 in an emergency, I am tending to carry two equivalent weapons, concealed at belt level, on my own time, while still carrying my primary duty pistol at 0300 while at work, in the twilight of my career. (I am trying to postpone a total transition until I either retire, or take a long vacation to practice thousands of lefty draws with a "blue" gun.)
On training one's nails off, well, yes, train hard, regardless of whether one carries a second weapon!
