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guns with no safety
green mile
Member Posts: 619 ✭✭✭
Good evening all, I have been debating the issue of having a gun without a safety (like a Glock), or having a gun with a safety(like a taurus). Since I cut my teeth on guns, all of the guns I have owned and shot have had a safety on them (handgun, rifle, and shotgun), and most ofthe reading I have done on this forum dictates that most carry their weapons (Glocks, Kahrs, etc.) without a round in the chamber. This is something I have never done, especially in the military. What are your thoughts on this issue? All input is greatly appreciated. Have a great labor Day Weekend.
Comments
People have been carrying safety-less revolvers for a long time. Just a thought.
My CZ is a SA/DA, carried with a round chambered and decocked (no conventional safety).
My Kahr P45(ordered, but not yet here) will be carried with a round chambered.
I feel confident that none of these pistols will pose a serious risk without having a safety. The only people that handle my guns are those that I know are competent and knowledgeable enough.
Good evening all, I have been debating the issue of having a gun without a safety (like a Glock), or having a gun with a safety(like a taurus). Since I cut my teeth on guns, all of the guns I have owned and shot have had a safety on them (handgun, rifle, and shotgun), and most ofthe reading I have done on this forum dictates that most carry their weapons (Glocks, Kahrs, etc.) without a round in the chamber. This is something I have never done, especially in the military. What are your thoughts on this issue? All input is greatly appreciated. Have a great labor Day Weekend.
Don't know where you read that most of us carry chamber empty, but that is just the wrong thing to do. If you carry a gun for self defense it should be instantly available to you to fire, not screw around with and try to chamber a round under pressure. Now, as for safeties, I will not own a handgun with a manual safety. (Or as my FTO once called them: the suicide switch.) The safety is just something to forget during the intenseness of the situation and you gun may not go bang when you need it to. My personal favorite guns are Sigs, they do not have a manual safety and are perfectly safe to carry with a round chambered.
I carry a glock (40 cal.) for work and 'off duty' as well as I own and occasionally carry a keltec , All with No Worries about safety !
and : If you follow the basic gun safety rules You will have No Problems !!!
All Guns are Always Loaded !
Keep your finger off the trigger !
Never Point a gun @ any thing you do not wish to shoot .
Know your target !
Thanks !!!
Be Safe !!!
d.a.stearns
Gunsmith / LEO
Niota , Tn
With Glock there were several local accidents due to no safety and very light trigger pull. One was a man reaching across the seat of his pickup to get the gun and accidentally pulled the trigger. Another was a man shot by a four year old. The latter was a LEO who bought my .40 Glock after I traded it in. You can't imagine the calls I got from lawyers about the Glock even though I had not owned it for months before the shooting.
True - both of the above were due to some kind of mis-handling of a firearm. But 'safety' has a lot of meanings.
Where IDIOTS get in trouble is trying to holster a Glock with out first taking there finger off the trigger.
Glocks are perfectly safe, but there also capable of cleansing the gene pool one IDIOT at a time.
A 1911 style down-with-the-thumb safety gets taken off automatically for me, but whatever your weapon style it behooves you to practice with it until it's second nature, same with releases on holsters. From your background it sounds like you already knew that many moons ago.
As for "the suicide switch", there have been dozens of documented incidents where a police officer was disarmed and the attacker tried to kill him/her with their own sidearm, but couldn't because they couldn't figure out how to take the safety off. Carrying with the safety on saved those officer's lives. And no matter how big and bad you are, it's always possible that somebody can smack you in the head with a 2x4 and take your gun.
It's incumbent on the carrier to make taking the safety off part of the firing stroke. One of my favorite quotes about personal responsibility (you know how we keep and bear arms types are big on that) was the one from a WWI vet that Cooper used to quote:
The author saw a German rising up out of a trench at close range, pointed his 1911 and pulled the trigger without effect - he had forgotten to release "the safety catch". He wrote that even as he saw his opponent slam home the bolt and bring his rifle to his shoulder, the thought went through his mind: "If ever a man deserved to die, you do."
BTW about the only time my primary (Colt LW Cmdr) has an empty chamber is when it's going to, on the bench, or coming home from the range.
--Cocked and Locked and it's pretty hard to beat the 1911 style of SAFETIES-besides as Handgun/Tailgunner say "touch trigger only when ready to SHOOT !!
---JIMBO
but revolvers dont have safeties and have been around safely for eons.
safeties are to protect us from those oops moments. thus, i tend to agree with the thought of always having a safety somewhere, somehow. just train with the safety as part of your drawing/firing practice. it will come second nature and the milisecond it takes wont even be noticed.
Former Member U.S. Navy Shooting Team
Former NSSA All American
Navy Distinguished Pistol Shot
MO, CT, VA.