Do you carry a different gun off-duty?

[WobblyPossum]

I have two approved personally owned weapons (POWs) on the books with my agency: a G19 and a G26. Currently both guns have iron sights and the G19 has a TLR-7A mounted. Off duty, I carry the G26 about 75% of the time and the G19 about 25% of the time. If I’m carrying the G19, I’ve got a 24rd magazine as a reload. If I’m carrying the G26, I’ve got a 15rd magazine as a reload. It’s generally the 15rd magazine from the G19 because the G19 gets the 24rd mag in it and becomes the nightstand gun when I get home from work. I know that I shoot the G19 slightly better than the G26 but I’m willing to sacrifice that extra capability for the easier concealment and slight increase in comfort most of the time off duty. Based on my lifestyle I believe I’m more likely to need to use a handgun while working than while not working. There aren’t too many typical off duty/CCW situations in which a G26 wouldn’t be capable of solving the problem but a G19 would be.

Once I’m authorized to carry the G19 with a red dot on duty later this year, I’ll likely end up carrying it more often off duty though.

[Lon]

Issue gun is this:


Off duty is this:


Reason? It’s easier to conceal year round and I shoot it just as well.

[KevH]

A Glock 17 and P365 are not significantly different in "manual of arms." They, like most plastic striker fired handguns, are essentially the same.

If you're going to spend all your time in the academy with a bone stock Glock 45 than it makes sense to start just shooting one or a G17. To be honest, you're likely wasting your time since when you get to the academy they'll likely make you shoot the way they want you too. I have had several good shooters pre-academy that I have to put significant work into to help them turn back into good shooters post-academy (we use a regional academy whose firearms program is stuck in 1993).

If the department mandates you to carry a Glock 45 on-duty then I would suggest just carrying that all the time if you want to carry a full size gun. There are much worse options that could be forced upon you. If the department has a policy that allows personally owned handguns that is a different matter.

If you want to carry a smaller gun off-duty (like the majority of cops that carry a gun do including myself) I would look at a P365 or P365XL. Nearly everything about it is similar to the Glock, but I believe it is a better option than the slimline Glocks. Your other option is the larger G26 Gen5 if those float your boat.

[MD7305]

M&P9 M2.0 fullsize on-duty. M&P9 M2.0 Compact or Shield Plus off-duty (50/50 split). I don't find the difference has much effect on my performance especially between the full size and compact. In the past I exclusively carried my duty gun but a slightly smaller setup is convenient and the minimal differences of those pistols seem to lend to across the board performance. I do refrain from changing my off duty triggers from anything other than stock to keep everything similar. I've followed this philosophy for about 17 years now.

[tusk212]

Glock 21 gen4 on duty, Glock 19 off duty.

[octagon]

The poll options aren't the clearest for how to answer since the examples are focused on how modified the same gun is for the first 4 choices so I'm not sure how "different" two guns are in the OP opinion.

I carried a Glock 23 unmodified off duty and a stock Glock 22 on duty. Both had Trijicon night sights but otherwise out of the box stock. About 5-7 years before retiring I swapped in a Ghost connector in my off duty. I consider both guns virtually the same even with grip size and shape differences they feel and work so closely as to have no difference in shooting ability just easier to conceal smaller gun grip length.

I did carry the same 23 off duty when issued Sig P226 in 9mm and then 40 so quite a difference in manual of arms, grip angle, weight,controls placement, and especially trigger. During those times I carried the Glock 23 because I shot it better and it was more reliable.

[DaBigBR]

I checked all of the boxes on the poll. What I carry has more to do with where I am going, what I am doing, and what I am wearing than anything else. The solution fits the situation.

People get wrapped around the axle on stuff like this and my observation is more often than not those who are trying to "master" one gun by carrying it for everything either don't "master" it, or don't carry it. Maybe these are people who are indeed shooting to the best of their ability (and it just isn't very high) and maybe they would shoot better overall if they felt like they had to train on another platform. Who really know? A lot of folks that argue for carrying one gun for everything also do not seem to consider that they are nearly certainly using a different holster, have different (or no) spare magazines etc. The argument falls apart for me when you look at the bigger picture.

[RJflyer]

I carry the same POW G19 both on duty and off duty. My issued weapon only comes out of the safe for quals.

[TGS]

@Casey

My unsolicited advice that you might already be intimately familiar with is to read up on the rules for carrying a weapon off-duty as a LEO in your state and what repercussions the various options may have, such as being scoped by your agency. My intent here is to think about the issue by framing it from the legal perspective. In general, there are three ways to carry a weapon:

1) Agency authority: the agency affirms you can carry XYZ gun off-duty in the scope of your duties as a LEO. If the agency isn't outright affirming the carriage of POWs off-duty, you're not carrying under agency authority
2) Constitutional Carry or CCW: Generally in the capacity of a private citizen
3) LEOSA: Generally in the capacity of a private citizen, LEOSA simply allows you to carry a gun for self-defense and affords no LE powers

The last sort of unofficial option (hence why I'm not listing this as #4) is that you have a badge, and historically in a given locale people may just assume that you have a badge and can carry whatever gun you want off duty. If your agency does not actually have a policy specifying you can carry a gun of your choosing off-duty and under what conditions that carriage is authorized, then that's a very gray area as your agency can very well tell you to fuck off if anything happens and even more likely they will at the very least not scope you. From my travels across the US and talking to locals, this seems to be a very common mode of carrying a POW off duty; they very often give no reason other than, "because I'm a cop, so I can carry whatever I want off duty" without attaching that action to any sort of legal authority or agency policy that actually affirms them to do such. That's simply not how law works; caveat emptor.

A note about LEOSA. There's still lots of bad info about LEOSA floating out there; even just a couple years ago, a seasoned LEO on this forum tried arguing with me until he was blue in the face that LEOSA grants you nationwide LE powers with your POW, which a basic reading of the law will dispel. Also, just because you need your creds/ID to prove your status as a "Qualified LEO" under the law in order to affirm your privilege to LEOSA doesn't mean your agency is authorizing you to act in the capacity of a LEO while carrying a POW. So, I see this a lot with LEOs from federal agencies who don't allow the carriage of issued weapons off-duty; they think they're still carrying under the agency authority with all the backstop that entails because they're using their creds to carry under LEOSA. Again, that's simply not how law works; caveat emptor.

At my federal agency, we have a fairly strict policy that we can only carry our issued weapons on agency authority when off-duty. Our policy specifically mentions that the policy shall not restrict us from carrying in our capacity as a private citizen on a CCW permit or as a qualified LEO under LEOSA....however, that doesn't mean I have LE powers while doing such, and if I invoke my LE powers granted by my agency while carrying a POW that is not authorized by policy, I place myself at risk of a policy violation.

So, in closing as a response to your OP, I try to stay with our issued firearms per the policy as that gives me the greatest possible chance of being scoped by my agency in the chance I have to use my weapon off duty, and reduces the chance of any unintentional policy violations.

[ObiWan]

Before retirement I carried my issued firearm (H&K P2000) on and off duty. The theory is that I was currently qualified with that gun and had a few thousand rounds through it during documented training sessions. If involved in an off duty shooting there is a possibility that my agency would back me. Unsure if they would have if I had used a privately owned firearm. Also, since that firearm would be seized as evidence and would be in an evidence room for an extended period of time, then better my government issued gun than my privately purchased firearm.

Since retirement I mostly carry "compact size" semi autos - them being the same size as my issued P2000. Occasionally I carry a J frame when I really need to be low profile.