Actually, I only use the phrase "common knowledge" for things that I've looked into and can verify. Y'all use it however y'all choose. I'm familiar with USN/USMC scuttlebutt or sea stories, USArmy Blowing Smoke or war stories, or USAF wingwiper stories. Stuff that I've researched and have documented I call "facts".
Everyone who carries some form of 1911, among the cops I personally know and/or am kin to, carries it chambered, cocked, and locked with some form of thumb-break safety strap between the hammer and the slide. When I carry one around the farm or the woods, that's the way I carry it, in an old duty holster. Socially, I use one of the belt-mounted slides.
I started carrying guns for hunting and recreation in the 50s, professionally in the 60s (quit hunting in the 70s), and socially in the 80s. I shot in paper-punching competitions and the Practical Police-style matches from the 60s-90s. I've seen one accidental discharge on a rifle range during qualification (idiot didn't clear the weapon), one on a .45 range during qualification (ditto idiot), one at the smallbore pistol range during the 1968 4th Army matches (defective pistol). I've never been around one in the groups with whom I hunted or had one myself. TRAINING AND PRACTICE HELPS PREVENT ERRORS.
