{"id":416,"date":"2022-08-02T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T17:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mckinneyfirearmstraining.com\/wordpress\/?p=416"},"modified":"2022-08-02T12:00:30","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T17:00:30","slug":"pistol-safeties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mckinneyfirearmstraining.com\/wordpress\/pistol-safeties\/","title":{"rendered":"Pistol Safeties"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While all handguns have various safety features built-in, the ones on a revolver do not require the user to do anything, so we will only discuss semi-automatics in this paper.\u00a0 Safety devices fall into five groups, with every semi-automatic having at least one of these features, and sometimes several.\u00a0 Two of them require no action from the user, but will be included here so you have a more complete view of the features.\u00a0 Please not that, as a safety protocol, you should never count on a safety working<\/strong>.\u00a0 Failure of a safety device is extremely rare, but anything mechanical can break.\u00a0 Never trust a gun<\/strong>, except in a combat situation, where you have no choice.\u00a0 In this paper, I will use the term \u201cTrue Safety<\/strong>\u201d, meaning that a 3 year old child would be stopped from firing the gun.<\/p>\n

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  1. \u00a0Firing Pin Safety Block<\/strong>. Entirely internal, this feature makes it impossible for a gun to fire until the trigger is moved.\u00a0 Almost all handguns have this feature.\u00a0 NOT a True Safety.

    <\/li>\n
  2. \u00a0Drop Safety<\/strong>. While all handguns have this feature, there are several ways to implement it.\u00a0 Some are internal, and invisible to the user.\u00a0 On some guns, it appears as a small blade inside the trigger.\u00a0 It must be pressed as the trigger is pressed.\u00a0 The blade does not have enough mass to be moved by the kinetic force of dropping the gun.\u00a0 NOT a True Safety.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0 \"\"<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

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    1. \u00a0Thumb Safety<\/strong> (AKA Frame Safety). A lever mounted on the left rear corner of the slide or the frame.\u00a0 Usually, up is engaged (on), and down is disengaged (off).\u00a0 The user swipes down with the dominant thumb as he\/she presents the weapon.\u00a0 Ambidextrous guns will have this lever on both sides, for lefties.\u00a0 True Safety, probably.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \"\"<\/p>\n

      \u00a0<\/p>\n

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      1. \u00a0Decocker<\/strong>. This device looks like a thumb safety, but acts (on hammer-fired models only) to safely drop the hammer.\u00a0 There are two types, which are quite different.

        \u00a0 Decocker only<\/strong>. After the hammer is dropped, the gun can still be fired, but\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 with a much heavier trigger weight.\u00a0 Not quite a True Safety, but an impediment for a child.
        \u00a0 Decocker + Safety<\/strong>. After the hammer is dropped, the safety is automatically engaged, so the gun cannot be fired without first disengaging the safety.\u00a0 True Safety.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Guns with decockers, though uncommon, are harder to understand and use than other types of guns.\u00a0 Police never use these.<\/p>\n

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        1. Grip Safety<\/strong>. A spring-loaded lever on the back of the grip, this safety is engaged by default, and is disengaged by the action of acquiring a proper grip on the gun.\u00a0 Dropping the gun automatically puts it back in safe mode.\u00a0 This was developed in 1910, and has been used for 112 years on the \u201c1911\u201d pistol.\u00a0 Smith & Wesson and Springfield Armory use it on some models, but it is still fairly uncommon.\u00a0 A True Safety, unless a child figures out how it works.

          \"\"<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          The pistol above has both a drop safety and a grip safety, which are redundant.\u00a0 Marketing.

          <\/p>\n

          \"\"<\/p>\n

          This pistol has both a thumb safety and a grip safety.<\/p>\n

          Confused yet?\u00a0 Keep reading.<\/p>\n

          Hammer-fired guns<\/strong> (old school) have more sensitive triggers, so they will always have a thumb safety or decocker, and sometimes both.<\/p>\n

          Striker-fired guns<\/strong> cannot have a decocker, and seldom have a thumb safety. \u00a0That is considered optional, for these reasons:<\/p>\n

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          1. \u00a0Striker-fired guns are harder to fire by accident, as cocking of the mechanism is not complete until the trigger is moved.<\/li>\n
          2. \u00a0Gun safety is not the responsibility of the gun, but of the user. Your only true safety is your training.\u00a0 Anything else is a dangerous crutch.<\/li>\n
          3. \u00a0Police never carry guns with safeties. There is a reason.\u00a0 Simpler guns are easier to use in a crisis.\u00a0 Your brain works faster than your thumb.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            While all handguns have various safety features built-in, the ones on a revolver do not require the user to do anything, so we will only discuss semi-automatics in this paper.\u00a0 Safety devices fall into five groups, with every semi-automatic having at least one of these features, and sometimes several.\u00a0 Two of them require no action … Continue reading “Pistol Safeties”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyfirearmstraining.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyfirearmstraining.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyfirearmstraining.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyfirearmstraining.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyfirearmstraining.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyfirearmstraining.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":421,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyfirearmstraining.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416\/revisions\/421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyfirearmstraining.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyfirearmstraining.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyfirearmstraining.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}