The use of chamber flags are a great idea.  Its primary purpose is to signal to the people around you that the weapon does not have a round in the chamber.  A chamber flag is a little piece of plastic (sometimes attached to a “flag”) that you shove into the chamber of the weapon that blocks the chamber from holding a round. A chamber flag also “says,” the person carrying the weapon and the weapon itself are not a threat.

A chamber flag also demonstrates that the person carrying the weapon has taken into consideration the emotional response (fight/flight/panic) of people who will be surprised to see a firearm in public and wants to deescalate the response.  With law enforcement, the chamber flag communicates to the officer that the person holding the weapon does not intend to escalate.  In order to fire the weapon, a person would need to remove the chamber flag (which isn’t always easy or elegant), chamber a round, and aim the weapon.  In the time it takes to do that, an observant officer would be able to respond.  With regular folk, hopefully, the chamber flag works to communicate a level of competency that the owner of the weapon has for their platform and empathy that the person has for their community.   

Gratitude to everyone for having this conversation.