External Safeties
Much has been written, said, and debated regarding external safeties on handguns. Designers, manufacturers, and end state users have been proponents of the various forms of external safeties over the decades and that would tend to lend credence to their necessity. But, maybe those folks are wrong.
Repeating handguns are actually a fairly new machine in the overall history of firearms and so the evolution is still somewhere in the small mammals phase of overall development. The notion of external safeties is to make the weapon less likely to have a negligent, unintended, or accidental discharge. Often this is a concern brought forward by supervisors, administrators, and bureaucrats in the military and law enforcement arenas who are concerned about liability rather than functionality. Let’s take a look at the most common types and their utility.
The grip safety brought to us by the genius godfather of modern semiautomatics, John Moses Browning prevents the trigger from moving unless the weapon is held correctly and firmly. That seems legit. 1911 advocates will exclaim the necessity of the grip safety for any legitimate business. Well, what if due to unforeseen circumstances one really needs to discharge the handgun right now, but can not get the “proper” grip to disengage the otherwise passive safety. Browning himself did away with the grip safety on the P35/HiPower and he claimed it was a better weapon than the 1911. Put down your pitchforks and torches, J.M. Browning said that. I just quoted him.
The frame mounted thumb safety also made popular by Browning on the 1911, P35, and then myriad other manufacturers and models even to the modern M17/18, 92s, M&Ps etc. This mechanism is designed to prevent the sear from being engaged to allow the hammer or striker to ride forward while in the locked position. These are usually placed in such a location as the be not only easy but rather intuitive to use. Almost every one I’ve encountered seemed very well placed and workable. Ostensibly these prevent unintended discharges because you have to disengage them to fire. Unfortunately, every training program that I have ever seen for these types of weapons involve sweeping the safety off during the draw and before the acquisition of a sight picture. So if the safety is on only in the holster, where our fingers aren’t near the trigger, what is the point?
Magazine release safeties. These prevent the weapon from being fired without a properly seated magazine. There have been some saves where the bad guy got the pistol after he good guy hit the magazine release, but do we know if the reverse is true. It seems like a small window of opportunity to me.
Trigger mounted safeties like those found on Glocks, M&Ps, and similar systems are intuitive and require very little training to get used to. Unfortunately, they only work until you put your finger on the trigger and then they are irrelevant.
The aforementioned comments aren’t meant to infer that I have no regard or use for safeties. I used to carry a S&W 5906 which had a de-cocking thumb safety and a magazine release safety. While the pistol was on my person and in my control, the magazine was seated and the safety in the off position. This would allow me to draw and fire a double action shot followed by single action shots. When I took the pistol off and left it I would engage the thumb safety and pop the magazine loose so that anyone who might pick it up would have to seat the magazine and move the safety, if they knew to, before firing it.
All of the safeties either disengage when you make contact with the weapon or you are trained to disengage them as soon as you clear the holster. In either case you find yourself in a stressful and dangerous situation with a handgun with no safeties beyond your brain and trigger finger in your hands.
This is just the opinion of an old dude that carries a gun every day.
Have a great day.