To me a safety that "keeps something from pulling the trigger unless something pulls the trigger first" is laughable.
I've had many Glock owners tell me that they like not having a manual safety. They're worried that they might not remember to turn it off when they need the gun. They don't trust themselves with a safety? But they trust themselves with a gun that doesn't have one? Trust themselves to keep their finger off the trigger under all circumstances, through stress and distraction? With enough training and practice, sure! But how many owners actually have that level of competence?
Since when is the generally dumb public safe with anything? These are the same people who have no concept of lane discipline, can't figure out how to work something as simple as a four way stop and can't even figure out how to walk past an oncoming pedestrian without doing that stupid side to side dance. But they'll buy a gun with a relatively light, short trigger pull with no safety, then try to convince me that THEY are the safety!
Law enforcement receives more firearms training than most gun owners do, yet they've had so many accidental discharges that the New York trigger came about in an attempt to reduce them. Not too long ago a lady officer shot herself in the neck cleaning her Glock. If her gun had a grip safety like the venerable 1911 or the XD, I doubt that would have happened.
Then comes the stress of a violent confrontation. With the rush of adrenaline and focusing on the scene, the brain tends to blurr out things like where the trigger finger is. On one of those cop shows, an officer had wrestled a perp to the ground and was cuffing him. A second officer was covering the perp with a Glock and while the first was cuffing him, she touched off a round into the ground next to them. Luckily no one was hurt. Her focus was on the scene in front of her rather than where her finger was.
Am I saying the Glock is an unsafe design? No, not at all. It's not going to go off by itself. I'm saying that most people are unsafe and don't realize it until their mind is elsewhere and an accident happens. I'd like to see at least a grip safety on Glocks and most other guns. It's a non obtrusive solution to at least some safety issues.
In my opinion, a cocked and UN-locked 1911 is as safe as any Glock, and perhaps more so. It's not going to go off unless the trigger is pulled either. It's not going to go off it it's dropped either. The big difference is that it also has to be gripped firmly to fire. If it's being holstered properly by the butt, it won't go off if the holster strap snags the trigger or something.
I've had many Glock owners tell me that they like not having a manual safety. They're worried that they might not remember to turn it off when they need the gun. They don't trust themselves with a safety? But they trust themselves with a gun that doesn't have one? Trust themselves to keep their finger off the trigger under all circumstances, through stress and distraction? With enough training and practice, sure! But how many owners actually have that level of competence?
Since when is the generally dumb public safe with anything? These are the same people who have no concept of lane discipline, can't figure out how to work something as simple as a four way stop and can't even figure out how to walk past an oncoming pedestrian without doing that stupid side to side dance. But they'll buy a gun with a relatively light, short trigger pull with no safety, then try to convince me that THEY are the safety!
Law enforcement receives more firearms training than most gun owners do, yet they've had so many accidental discharges that the New York trigger came about in an attempt to reduce them. Not too long ago a lady officer shot herself in the neck cleaning her Glock. If her gun had a grip safety like the venerable 1911 or the XD, I doubt that would have happened.
Then comes the stress of a violent confrontation. With the rush of adrenaline and focusing on the scene, the brain tends to blurr out things like where the trigger finger is. On one of those cop shows, an officer had wrestled a perp to the ground and was cuffing him. A second officer was covering the perp with a Glock and while the first was cuffing him, she touched off a round into the ground next to them. Luckily no one was hurt. Her focus was on the scene in front of her rather than where her finger was.
Am I saying the Glock is an unsafe design? No, not at all. It's not going to go off by itself. I'm saying that most people are unsafe and don't realize it until their mind is elsewhere and an accident happens. I'd like to see at least a grip safety on Glocks and most other guns. It's a non obtrusive solution to at least some safety issues.
In my opinion, a cocked and UN-locked 1911 is as safe as any Glock, and perhaps more so. It's not going to go off unless the trigger is pulled either. It's not going to go off it it's dropped either. The big difference is that it also has to be gripped firmly to fire. If it's being holstered properly by the butt, it won't go off if the holster strap snags the trigger or something.