[jester]

I can think of several reasons one would have or desire multiple sidearms:

1.) What if you are wearing a pistol on your belt or even a thigh rig, and that is between you and a car door. Try drawing it while seated. I did it once, between the idiot trying to yank me through the window, the seatbelt the pistol ended up on the floor under the seat and I had to cave the characters face in with my walkie talkie and pray the pistol didn't fall out in his reach when I opened the door.

2.) You are injured in the hand that your holster is on. I saw a guy turn and miscaculated and his hand with pistol slammed into a steel post knocking said pistol from his hand and breaking it <his hand> Now, imagine this, your hand is broken or otherwise injured and you are wearing the pistol in a thigh or belt rig. Try to draw the pistol, or reload or cock it.

3.) Weapons malfunction? What if your weapon stovepipes? Spend the next 10 seconds clearing the jam durring a shootout?

4.) Body position: similiar to the vehicle scenario, what if you are in such a position where you can not reach a pistol on your belt or in a thigh rig?

5.) Concealability: they know you have a rifle, and you put it down, they see the pistol on your hip and you take that off. But do they expect you to have a second pistol on you as well? After all who regularly carries a pistol in a concealed small of the back rig? Although one can easily hide a beretta or 1911 there under a modern uniform blouse without it being noticed.

Anyhow, those are some of the reasons I can see someone especialy in the violent world of T2K carrying a second primary pistol on them and then maybe a 3rd holdout pistol for when/if things gett REALLY REALLY bad.