We Get Letters

"Are you an advocator of carrying along extra magazines or speedloaders?"

Try as I might, I have never been able to discover a documented civilian self defense shooting where a reload won the day. Doesn't mean it hasn't happened, and it'd suck to be the first guy who needed one but left home without it. The want and or need for carrying a spare magazine can be platform specific in that a Glock 17 has many more little buddies to seek and destroy goblin flesh than a Glock 26 or 27. Or, how about the poor 1911 packer with a mere 7 or 8?

I'd worry far more about a magazine malfunction than finding oneself surrounded by the cast of Night of The Living Dead, because bottomfeeders CAN and WILL stutter step now and again so it might be wise to carry a spare just as one does an extra tire in the trunk. It boils down to an individual preference, and since risk assessment is impossible to forecast outside of the sandbox or some other dirty place, there are few, if any, stalwart though they might be concealed carriers who can offer such advice with any degree of certainty. The ONLY ONES will just call you an "over-compensating retard" if you do, but it's YOUR life you are betting on, not theirs.

It's the same for revolvers. If you can tote along a speedloader with a reasonable degree of concealment, then go for it. I do not. When it is impossible to stay away from a danger zone, I favor the NY reload.

EDITED TO ADD

That certain situations may very well require different munitions. For instance, I find myself traveling through gator-country now and again, and the round of choice for a unsociable biped wouldn't be as effective as one designed for a rascally reptile. If I know beforehand that I'll be venture into or near a swamp, then a spare magazine of suitable...200 grains of hardcast lead...cartridges is carried along just in case. Not that I'd ever harm a scale on their chinny chin chin, because that's illegal and I am nothing if not a law-abiding citizen who would rather leave an arm or a leg than injure one of natures noble creatures.

Cough.