You would not believe the amount of comments I saw in the above Facebook group where folks were complaining about being “flagged” by a holstered gun.
You can’t flag if you’re not touching the firearm. That firearm is holstered. Even if it has a round chambered (it probably does), guns do not go off on their own. Well, factoring out Sig Sauer P320s, they typically do not.
The four general firearm safety rules apply to firearms that are being used/handled by human beings. Guns sitting in holsters (or strapped onto vehicle interiors, or sitting in safes, or sitting in a desk drawer, or sitting on top of a nightstand) will not just randomly kick off a round without some type of human interaction.
Next time you’re at the range or at home handling your firearm, pay acute attention to where the muzzle is being pointed during your handling of it. Unless you’re in a basement and/or are living by yourself, there’s the potential to flag other folks, especially if you’re at a gun range. Half the time when I remove my handgun from the range bag, it’s pointing in the wrong direction even before I touch it. Do I worry about it? No. Why? Because it’s not loaded and if it were, I’d just reverse the bag so that the weapon is pointed downrange even when still in the bag. As well, if you’re holstering or unholstering a firearm, you’re almost certainly flagging yourself at some point of the process, especially if you’re carrying appendix position. You’d think folks would be mindful of the fact that when they holster or unholster, they’re muzzling some part of their body. Within the above FB comments, there are folks swearing that they don’t, yet it’s impossible not to.
The firearms safety rules do not apply to holstered firearms, nor do they apply to firearms that aren’t being handled/manipulated by a human being.
When was the last time you saw a report or article showing that a person was shot by a holstered firearm? Or, a firearm that went off while sitting on a desk. Or, a firearm that went off in a safe, on it’s own? The chance of it happening are so low that it’s more probable that you’ll be struck by lightning.