Found at tgace’s blog and worth reposting to spread the word:

Clint Smith, of Thunder Ranch, on the tactical reload:

I too must agree here.

If your gun is working, why put it into a non-working state?

If your gun isn’t working, you need to get it back to working as fast as possible or transition to a backup gun.

If you must put it into a non-working state, you should ensure you’re in a position that can manage that. So you’re behind cover, you have a partner, you know you have time/opportunity, or you have no other choice.

I forget exactly where I read this, but I know the source is Tom Givens. Tom has had a lot of interaction with folks in gunfights, from studying fight reports, being involved in hundreds of post-fight debriefs, to 50+ of his own students being involved in a gunfight. He has yet to find a time when there was a need for that “ammo/magazine retention”, at least in civilian situations. In Tom’s classes he advocates the “speed reload”, which is dropping the magazine out of the gun and onto the floor and inserting a new magazine. You work to keep the gun running and keep downtime as minimal as possible.