Guns that go off by themselves.. HPD has them!?

[686+]

picture

Here is a picture of the safety in question. The black MIM safety on the right is shown with the left lever that would rotate counter clockwise as you look at it. Notice the shiny spot is where the hammer rides the safety.

The one on the left is a safety replacement block, if you have a DAO gun.

 

[sansone]

+1 for slowly thumbing down the hammer. first time I operated a decocker I wet myself when the hammer fell

 

[Tomcat47]

Back home in my little town we had a particular officer who blowed the left mirror off his patrol car with a wheel gun...then again with a S&W auto when the dept went auto 9mm.....then once again with a .40 blowing the rear view mirror off and shooting through a gas station canopy.

I am with BartNoir till I see more details...until then I will speculate Urban Myth. SW website has no info regarding this. PLUS!

The Model 4003 was built from 1991-1993, and the Model 4004, a blued version of the 4003.

This from www.pmulcahy.com very informative site by the way.....

With the above thought...maybe it is time to replace those 4003's? hmmm 15 years in service???

and oh! back to the top of this post....can we say...oops!...oops!....oops!
I...thought it was unloaded...I...I....thought the safety was on....I ...I.... I...
Ok...im an idiot...

Also when choosing to decock a firearm with this ability your finger should never be on the trigger. And there has been actual instances where a person went to decock the firearm and had there finger on the trigger, and atually pulled the trigger before the decocker had been engaged..these people are no good at multi-tasking with a loaded firearm.

As for the 39 mentioned above.. I would not believe it if I had been there. recoil and a limp wrist can presume to be a full auto situation, when it is actually just a suprise from improper firearm handling. I have had to many of these guns, along with Taurus, Baretta , Colt and the list goes on....

I have never had, seen, or heard of a decocker failure (until now)AN......and also I never decock with a round in the chamber. Its intended use is EMPTY mag...close slide ...decock firearm.
If you have a live round in chamber...O What's this...Oh! its..its a safety!

And of course the News reported it first!

 

[joab]

But I will default to the owners manual, what does it say?

Beats me. That would be like reading instructions
And I bought the gun used

 

[Sage of Seattle]

Hundreds of Houston police officers may be carrying weapons that could accidentally fire at any moment

What does 'hysterical' mean?

 

[230RN]

joab said:

And people call me paranoid because I flinch every time I use a decocker.

Ditto, joab.

Back in the mid-sixties a friend showed me his new Walther PPK and when he flicked the safety and the hammer dropped, I damned near jumped out of my skin.

I have the same reaction today.

I'll use 'em, but I won't trust 'em.

Don't like magazine disconnect safeties either.

Or loaded cartridge indicators.

And mbt2001 observed:

The safer that you try to make a gun, the more dangerous the thing becomes. When you are introducing more working parts on something, usually complexity increases and time to failure decreases.

Double ditto.

MD_Willington put up a cutaway of a Gen 3. Jeeze, lookit all them there parts! And every part has at least one wear point.

I don't believe this is a mere urban legend --El Tejon and Cybrludite seem to confirm this.

Things fail.

Keep a bucket of sand handy if they do. I kept one in my shop just to establish the oft-recommended "safe direction."

Gimme a good ole reliable Matchlock any day.

Only one moving part.

 

[Bart Noir]

230RN, they gave virtually no information to this post, just a sort-of "something happened" statement.

I say again that a complete failure of the decocker can "maybe" let the hammer hit the firing pin. And that is all that will happen, because the FP safety prevents the FP from moving. Unless you have a complete failure of the FP safety at the same time as a complete failure of the decocker.

And that just ain't gonna happen.

So I still say somebody pulled a trigger, heard a loud noise, and started making excuses so that it wasn't his fault.

Bart Noir

 

[LaVere]

I took me a few times to feel comfortable using my decocker on my Sig. But just to be sure I not only point in a safe direction ( in the home) but also in an area that my wife might not see if I have to patch it.

 

[USMC6177]

I have a bucket of sand in my gun room for loading, unloading and decocking. Better safe then spackling

 

[230RN]

Bart Noir:

230RN, they gave virtually no information to this post, just a sort-of "something happened" statement.
snip
So I still say somebody pulled a trigger, heard a loud noise, and started making excuses so that it wasn't his fault.

I agree. But the tale was a good jumping off point for a discussion of decockers.

I'm glad others (e.g., USMC6177) use the sand bucket in their gun rooms to establish a safe direction.

 

[Kimber1911_06238]

not a good situation.

 

[mpmarty]

Why on earth would anyone want a third thumb (decocker)? If the weapon is loaded it is cocked, end of discussion. If it isn't loaded why not just thumb the hammer down gently or in the case of striker fired weapons, pull the trigger? this really confuses me and I think it's like tire rotation on my truck, I do it every day, insert key, start engine, put in gear, release park brake, press on gas pedal, rotate tires.

 

[KINGMAX]

Decock or not, always let the hammer down, don't drop it just because you have a decock feature on it.