Ironically, the whole point of a gun is to not be safe. Or, more precisely, to only be safe until you need it to not be. If you’re trying to defend your life, a gun that’s been rendered safe is not going to help you.
The funny part is, the more difficult it is to fire a round, the safer the gun when not needed. That’s why I don’t really mind manual safeties, grip safeties, or magazine disconnects. I’ll go into more detail on those later.
Table of Contents
A completely safe gun.
My Sig P365 is pretty safe here. Even with the ammunition sitting right there next to it, the odds of it going off are at zero.
Obviously, if I needed the gun it would take some time for me to get it ready to use. Aside from the reassembly, there’s the whole loading the magazine part.
It is, in a word, useless. Unless you think throwing gun parts at an attacker is a sound tactic.
Other levels of safety.
In this picture, the gun is unloaded. Pretend it isn’t. Even if it was loaded, it’s safe in this condition. The trigger is inaccessible and the manual safety is on (still not time to talk about safeties.)
The trigger is now accessible, but the safety is still engaged. That is still a pretty safe gun, requiring only the flip of a switch to become effective.
I still wouldn’t put my finger on the trigger, of course. Unless I was practicing dry fire. Which I’ve been doing a lot lately, since my last range trip proved I still need some work.
That’s why I chose the Sig for these pictures; I’ve already been dry firing it a lot so it was already unloaded.
This is my Springfield XDM. It has a grip safety. Whenever I’m handling this gun administratively, I use this grip on the gun. I’m not depressing the grip safety, and all my fingers are on the grip under the trigger guard.
If that grip safety is there, I might as well make use of it. And yes, I have unloaded the gun and tested the function of that safety. The trigger pulls, but nothing happens. I still won’t put my finger on the trigger, of course, when handling it normally.
Manual, grip, and disconnects, oh my.
Now we’ll talk about safeties. I’ll try to avoid the whole, blanket statement, “if you don’t agree with me you’re stupid,” sorts of things. I know this can be contentious, and nothing I say should be taken as the Fountain of All Truth on the subject.
First, there are the, “best safety is between your ears,” and, “a safety is a mechanical device that can fail,” people. They will use those two sentences back-to-back without realizing they’re undermining their own argument. Because, while both statements are true, your brain is also a mechanical device that can fail.
If you’ve ever had to look for keys, phone, TV remote, whatever, that was your brain failing. Having someone call your phone is an annoyance, but having your brain forget you haven’t unloaded the gun yet is a tragedy waiting to happen.
I’ll have more to say on this below.
Manual safeties
I’ll start with manual safeties. It doesn’t really matter what anyone thinks of your views on safeties. As I said; I don’t mind them. It depends. I’m fine with DA/SA autoloaders or DA revolvers that don’t have them. The heavy trigger pull makes it harder to fire the gun by accident.
That is the point of a safety; it doesn’t make the gun safe; it makes it safer. The Sig above is safer out of the holster with that safety on than it is without it. For me, the Sig’s six and a half pound trigger is a bit light and short. A manual safety version was available, so I got it.
On the other hand, my recently acquired Glock 19 isn’t available with a safety, and it’s five pound and change trigger is even lighter than the Sig’s. I’m not afraid of the Glock; I’m just aware that it’s easier to fire unintentionally than some of my other guns and I need to make sure I stay aware of that.
Grip safeties
Grip safeties are interesting. In a way, they’re the best of both worlds. Get a firing grip and the gun is good to go. When you don’t want it to fire, carry it like I did above. It feels weird at first, but you get used to it. I don’t even holster it with a firing grip.
I’m only really aware of grip safeties on 1911’s and some Springfields these days. Not the Hellcat, though. Not sure if that’s because they didn’t want one or if because it would take space and they decided it wasn’t worth it. I’m not a gun designer, but I imagine the smaller the gun the harder it is to fit things in it.
Magazine disconnects
Magazine disconnects are very rare lately. They are also, if anything, more controversial than manual safeties. I currently have two guns that have them and the newest one was made in about 2006, I think. I have a Hi-Power and a Smith & Wesson 910.
I’m very agnostic about these; I just don’t care one way or another. It’s been a minor annoyance in the Hi-Power when I clear the gun and have to re-insert a magazine to drop the hammer. The Smith is DA/SA with a de-cocker, so no big deal there.
If I had kids running around I might want that disconnect. But I don’t.
The only possible use I can see for one is, if I’m in a physical struggle for my gun that I’m losing, dropping the mag to render the gun inoperable could be useful.
On the other hand, if I’m in a struggle for my gun that I win but the mag dropped by accident, that would be bad.
Springfield recently came out with their SA-35, which is an updated version of the Hi-Power. One of the things they changed was to remove the mag disconnect.
Back to the, “your brain,” part.
As I said, the brain is imperfect. The best way to compensate for that is by forming habits. The more you do something and do it the right way, the more likely you are to always do it that way.
If you have a gun with a manual safety, then you should practice with it. A lot. Won’t cost you a dime, since what you’re training to do is disable the safety. No rounds required for that. I tend to practice safety manipulation pulling from my holster, but even just coming from low ready is good.
It’s funny; my thumb sweeps down on my Glock and Springfield to deactivate the safety that’s not there. Oh, well. That hurts nothing.
One thing I won’t do is get manual safety guns that work differently. That is, I’m used to a frame-mounted switch that you push down to deactivate. Like a 1911 or the P365.
I mentioned the de-cocker on the Smith 910. If you look at the pictures below, you’ll see that de-cocking also activates a slide-mounted safety that you have to push forward to deactivate. I just use the decocker; I then immediately push the switch forward to put it into DA/SA mode.
The fact that I always pick up the XDM in a non-firing grip is another habit. When I clear a gun I lock the slide back and stick my pinky in the chamber. I have literally never found a round in there, but I do it anyway.
Finally, we can’t have this discussion without The List.
- Treat all guns as if they are always loaded.
- Never let the muzzle point at anything that you are not willing to destroy.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and you have made the decision to shoot.
- Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
I’m going to be very pedantic here for a moment. If you took every word of that literally you couldn’t dry fire. Or test your trigger pull. Or many other things. So they’re good guidelines, but use your head. For example, I’d rewrite #1: Treat all guns as if they’re loaded until you’ve checked them.
Conclusion
In the end, we’re the safeties. And we’re imperfect. Some guns can help compensate for that and some can’t. It’s really up to you how much help you need. And that’s part of the safety process.
When I first got started I couldn’t have imagined having a gun without a safety. I did have kids around, so I did things like unload the gun and store it securely. Even then, a safety seemed like a good idea.
Now? I live alone no kids and any visitors have at least a basic familiarity with guns.
As for the gun itself, I go by the specific gun. If the striker gun I want has a manual safety I’ll probably get one, like the Sig.
If not, like the Glock, I’m good. Although I still have the odd twinge about pulling the trigger to clean it.
My hammer-fired DA/SA guns that I love don’t need a safety. Same with DA revolvers.
Those are my choices. What are yours?
