Glock; Safe or Unsafe?

[medmo]

Just adding a some kerosene to the knocked over lantern.....

Safe Action to Whom??

A child? An agressor who just ripped it off your belt in a struggle? There are some valid reasons for having a safety. If you are in a life or death struggle and for some reason you no longer control your side arm... wouldn't it be great to get a 2 to 8 second repreive while the dumb SOB stared at it and tried to figure out how to make it go "bang" while pointing it at you? I know there is never a justification why small children should ever come across a loaded pistol that has been left unsupervised or unattended. Unfortunately, it does happen. What is the probability of a tot cranking a round off after unintentionally activating a Safe Action Auto, (aka pulling the trigger)? What about with another pistol design with a thumb safety or grip safety?

 

[Walt Sherrill]

Its not really kerosene. Many double-action guns, including S&Ws don't have safeties. SIG DAO guns don't. That little lever is conspicuously missing. Revolvers don't.

With CZs, the safety doesn't work if the hammer is down. So it just takes a trigger pull to activate the firing sequence.

The magazine safety of some guns might act as a further safety feature -- as in a struggle with an attacker, the owner might be able to release the mag.

But everything I've read says that before you find yourself in THAT sort of situation, "retention" training is what's needed, not a safety lever.

 

[Lobotomy Boy]

Walt makes some good points. It seems that the problems Medmo brings up are not problems because the gun is a Glock, but rather because the gun is a gun.

 

[Ash]

I would say the Glock is less safe than a DAO revolver or auto in that the trigger is so light. It is much less forgiving of brush, keys, or in a scuffle than the previous two. The margins of error are much more narrow, just as the learning curve is much smaller. A DA auto loaded with the hammer down is also safer than the Glock. Really, they are safer and to say otherwise is ignoring the facts.

However, a DA or SA that has fired once is much more dangerous than a Glock. That trigger has very little distance and much less effort required to fire than the Glock's trigger. After firing once, one seldom puts his auto on Safe, especially when the bad guy is in your face. As such, the Glock would be defacto safer than the DA or SA. However, the Revolver or DAO auto remains safer than the Glock in that situation.

Is Glock unsafe? No, I wouldn't say that. Is it less safe? Yes, as a general rule, especially considering the holster is considered part of the safety. Is it less forgiving? Yes, for the same reason above. Is it dangerous? Of course, like all firearms.

Are there situations were Glock is safer? Also yes.

The safest handgun would be the revolver or DAO auto. The same things that would cause these to fire will cause a Glock to fire, and the Glock will fire easier than the other two due to the lighter trigger. The trigger safety is not really a safety because most things that will pull the trigger will already have disabled that safety. Nobody should argue that something might pull a revolver trigger on the edge and make it fire that woudln't have made the Glock fire. That is more far fetched than some of excuses about Glocks danger.

None of this is meant to state that Glocks are not reliable nor are not generally safe. But, all things considered, the Glock is not as safe as a revolver or DAO pistol. Sure, none of these will fire unless the trigger is pulled. The only question is how easy is it to pull that trigger.

Ash

 

[medmo]

Sorry, didn't mean to imply that Glocks are "problem" guns. I was trying to represent the point as to why some folks choose different designed guns rather than Glock type systems or guns that don't have manual safeties.

My brother almost shot my father in 1960 when he was three years old. Dad came home from work and left his NYPD issued Official Police up on a shelf. He fell asleep on the couch while "watching" my brother. My brother managed to get the gun down from a shelf and crank a round off missing the couch he was sleeping on by a few feet. After that Dad unloaded his guns when he came home.

 

[bglimpse]

Safe