wditto said:
...it takes me no longer to cock the hammer than to take off the safety...
Sweeping off the safety on a 1911 on the draw stroke is an easy, simple gross motor action, especially if you've been trained (as many have) to shoot with the thumb continuously riding the safety. One merely takes his firing grip and exerts some pressure downward with his thumb, and voila, the safety is disengaged. It is easily accomplishes as the gun rotates on to the target (with the trigger finger off the trigger and outside the trigger guard as the good Colonel Cooper taught us), and no time is lost on the safety.
And FWIW, I tend to agree that lowering the hammer shouldn't be too much of an issue. It's a risk, but one ought to be able to manage the risk if he pays attention. And of course we always have any gun we handle for any reason or in any way pointed only in a safe direction.
My primary issue with carrying in condition 2 is the need to then cock the hammer to make the gun ready to fire. The hammer can be cocked with the weak hand when assuming a two handed grips, but as discussed elsewhere, I don't think it's a particularly good idea to rely on having both hands available in an emergency.
Some folks can cock the hammer on a 1911 with one hand. Folks who can do that usually have large hands, and it helps if it's an "old style" 1911 with the more traditional short tang grip safety. But cocking a 1911 with one hand, IME, is not necessarily a quick, easy or sure action, especially under stress. And if the hammer slips while you're trying to cock it, you may or may not get an ND, but you'll at least have a non-operational weapon until you finally do get it cocked. If it's really an emergency and you need your gun, you will have lost valuable time trying to sort things out.
Consider the old fashion single action revolver. The large hammer and grip design make it much easier than a 1911 to cock, especially one handed. Yet in my old Cowboy Action Shooting days, in the moderate stress of competition, it was not uncommon to see someone "short stroke" his hogsleg cocking it with one hand, or even when cocking it with the weak hand.
BTW armoredman, it's also my understanding that the CZ75 and it's relatives are designed so that they may properly be carried at half-cock.