Revolvers over Semis for Personal Defense?

[Jorg Nysgerrig]

I know it's probably irrational (and discussed before), but I fear a mechanical failure of whatever holds the striker back in the XD, and one night it goes off while in the safe because some little metal or plastic part finally gave way to the stress of the internal components holding that tension.

Based on this post, one can only presume you have little concept of how the XD's internal safeties work or what actually happens when you grip the gun and pull the trigger. For your so-called "mechanical failure" to occur, the at least following three things need to happen

1. Somehow, the trigger/trigger bar would somehow have to break in such a way as to leave the sear hanging only by the grip safety.
2. The grip safety would to break in such a way as move and fall clear of the sear.
3. The striker block safety would have to break in such a way that it falls completely out of the path of the striker.

(I don't own an XD, but this is how I understand them to work from looking into them a bit. Someone who has an XD may be able to clarify the operation a bit more fully.)

Even if each of these failures were as common as 1 in a 1000, you'd still be looking at a one in a billion chance for all them to happen to the same gun. To compare, you are 200,000 times more likely to be struck by lightning during your life.

It doesn't take a gunsmith to understand the basic workings. I think it is the duty of all responsible gun owners, especially those who carry, to understand the basic mechanics of their chosen firearm(s) and to understand what the types of "safeties" that design has implemented.

However, if you aren't comfortable carrying the XD, you shouldn't. But you may wish to spend a bit more time understanding how it actually works before writing it off.

Same with your 638. If you don't know what the safeties it uses are and how they work, you should brush up on the mechanics of thing.