The problem comes when there is an accidental / negligent discharge or when someone else (typically a child) gets hold of the gun and manages to shoot himself or another person.
So having the magazine safety there trumps handling firearms safely and responsibly? Put another way, if they managed to shoot themselves or someone else but the magazine safety was installed, I've got a get out of jail free card?
I'm trying to envision the situation where I would store a Hi-Power with a live round chambered but no magazine inserted. This does not seem to be a smart thing to do, IMO, with or without a magazine safety. There are so many guns in this world that don't have that as an option that to rely on that mechanism seems foolish. I'm sure an attorney can burn you on it, but seems like he wouldn't have to. If you leave a gun lying around with a live round chambered, especially in the presence of others
you're asking for trouble. Why does an attorney even need to argue the magazine safety point, other than to solidify his own case?
The case noted also did not get a verdict, it was plea bargained. So no telling what a jury would think. The Colt Commander 45 involved doesn't offer a magazine safety, does it? That's unsafe right there, your honor. Why, the defendant probably kept it 'cocked and locked', as they say. Extremely unsafe, like most of the Browning designs.
With a Hi-Power, a round has to be chambered, hammer cocked, safety off, trigger pulled before it will fire. It will fire without a magazine if that safety has been removed. How did it get through the first sentence of this paragraph while pointed at something the wielder did not intend to shoot? That's negligence or ignorance of firearms safety (or both), and the magazine safety removal is just more ammunition for the prosecution.
If I leave my unattended car parked and running with the doors open and a child manages to climb in and harm itself or others, whose fault is that? Would it be a case by case basis? The prosecutor could have discovered that you never wear your seatbelt, and use that as evidence that you ignore safety when operating dangerous equipment. But does that really matter? The mistake was in the first sentence.
If
this article is correct, and if it's Stephen Camp I'm fairly certain it is, you
can fire the Hi-Power even with the magazine safety installed, it's just difficult.
It's pretty cool to know if someone is about to wrest the pistol away from you, you can drop the magazine and make the gun useless in a bad guy's hands.
Does self defense training start lesson one with how to render your weapon useless? I don't think I would remember to drop the magazine if someone assaulting me was close enough to grab my gun, unless I had been trained to.
On the other hand, I can't think of a single time when changing magazines that I have needed to fire the gun's last round from the previous mag before I have inserted the new magazine.
I'm not sure I understand this statement. Are you saying you never fire the last round in the magazine, so you typically have a live round chambered with or without the magazine? Or that it's just not necessary to fire all rounds in a magazine before switching to a different one? How is that different from any pistol?
The magazine safety on my Hi-Power has been removed. It has improved the trigger pull some, but not the reset. I now have the option of dry firing the pistol without a magazine inserted after clearing the chamber repeatedly,
like the rest of my pistols. I feel that's a better habit to be in if I'm going to dry fire something nowadays.
jmm
