The thumb safety

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The safety on the gun is just the safety on the gun. If its the gun you choose to carry, you learn to work it.

I think a lot of the problem here is, a lot of people only have experience with the gun(s) they have, and just dont know what they dont know.

frogfurr said:
Really the thing best 1911's have going for them is their trigger and their thinness for carry. Not to mention their inherent accuracy and reliability. One can buy a 1911 in any size or flavor. There is a need for a safety. Kind of like gun 101. If someone has decided that there is no need for a safety on a gun then they need to study on how the safety devices on lawnmowers and cars are not necessary either.
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Ive owned and carried a number of 1911's, and they can be great guns. When you compare them to some of the others, I think youll actually find that they are really comparable in most cases to similar other things. Reliability, depending on the gun you have, being the only one I dont agree with. Especially as you go smaller with them.

As far as the safety thing, I think with any of the things mentioned, especially these days, liability is more of a concern than anything else. Makers simply trying to deal with the lawyers and lowest common denominator buyers.

These days, I carry a Glock, and have never had any issues with them not having a manual safety. As I said above, take the time and effort to learn to use the gun you choose to carry, and all will be good.
 
My Ruger Security 9 Compact has a thumb safety. It does not bother me because I trained on and carried a M1911 in the Corps. We had to keep the safety engaged except when using the pistol. The Ruger safety is up for safe down for fire. It has a really neat design feature. It snaps off with very light pressure, but placing it in safe requires a more carful effort. If you try to push the safety up by pressing you thumb along the safety ot will not go up. It will only go up by pressure on the rearward end of the safety. It is almost impossible to activate the safety accidentally. When I m carrying in holster I do not engage the safety. I do engage it in one situation. I f I am wearing a jacket I often just put the gun in a packet. That is when I engage the safety.
 
Quote: "John Moses Browning got it right."

Is it true, however, with the thumb safety design
on the 1911 he later could never master the majority
of light switches? And his fans today have the
same problem? That's why they are always in
the dark? ;););)
 
I never use the safety on any gun because to me the only safe gun is an unloaded gun. If it is loaded it is to kept pointed in a safe direction or unloaded. No need for a safety.
 
JTQ said:
Most frame mounted safeties are like your M&P, which are copies of the 1911, down to fire, up for safe.

On the other hand, most slide mounted safeties are copies of the Walther P38, which are up to fire, and down for safe.

I think some of the problem is folks misunderstand how to use a slide mounted safety. Since most of the slide mounted safeties are on DA/SA guns, these devices are also used to decock the firearm, and that is their primary use. Most of these guns are not designed to be carried with the safety engaged, but rather with the hammer down and the safety off. The safety is there for administrative handling of the gun.

Many of the guns with frame mounted safeties are single action guns, and are intended to be carried with the safety engaged.
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+1 and this is why I never carry my Beretta 92FS. I love the Beretta but my conditioned reflexes might disable the gun even though I would never carry it with the safety on.

I began shooting handguns in 1968 in the USAF with a S&W Combat Masterpiece in .38spl (the standard issue handgun). Shortly thereafter, I began shooting a 1911A1 and have owned 1911s ever since. After 50 years, I'm used to swiping down a frame-mounted safety and still do when I carry a Springer XD even though it has no safety. Shooting is all about conditioned reflex and training...and if you don't train to use a safety, you'll have a problem any time you carry a gun with one.

Harry
 
Flatbush Harry said:
+1 and this is why I never carry my Beretta 92FS. I love the Beretta but my conditioned reflexes might disable the gun even though I would never carry it with the safety on.
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Beretta is featuring, particularly in its 92X series (no, not the 92X Performance),
its "G" decocker only; no safety. But for your 92FS, Beretta
sells for $59 the "G" decocker only kit which you can install yourself. Plenty
of You Tube features on how to do it. You may not care to do it but
the feature is available.

On one of my 92FSes I took a slide/barrel off a seldom used 92X model with G decocker
and put it on the FS. Besides the G decocker the 92X also has better
sights and slightly shorter barrel with recessed crown.
And with the FS frame I maintained th more elegant dust cover profile
over the 92X with its light rails.
 
This is really my only reason for not getting the P365...the safety is so wimply compared to the P938. Love the P938/P226 safeties because I rest my thumb on them when firing ensuring the safety is off.
 
Mike J said:
I understand many people say to just leave the safety off. The problem is it can get knocked on without the carrier realizing it. It happened to me once with a Ruger P-series. I didn't need the gun right then but if I had the safety would have been on when I thought it was off. If carrying a firearm with the safety off I believe one should still drill to always swipe it off when they draw. I might still carry that old Ruger if it had been decock only.
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I can't imagine that I'd ever be carrying my Beretta 92 but if I did my first move would be to get a "G conversion" and make sure it's decock only. One box of ammo trying to practice my first DA shot and I'd had it with the safety lever.
 
Otto said:
It was actually the US Calvary that required Browning to add a thumb safety during the trials. They didn't think his grip safety was sufficient enough. Browning conceded.
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Yep, The US CAVALRY asked for it, and JMB designed it

:)

PS - Calvary is a hill outside Jerusalem.

nobody says " I was a rifleman in the Calv"

:neener:
 
SeanSw said:
I can't imagine that I'd ever be carrying my Beretta 92 but if I did my first move would be to get a "G conversion" and make sure it's decock only. One box of ammo trying to practice my first DA shot and I'd had it with the safety lever.
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Exactly what I did with my PX4s since it is next to impossible to purchase a G series but F series were quite common. And the nice thing is if you decide to sell, you an always revert it back to an F series; just save the parts.
 
jmr40 said:
I started with 1911's and like the safety design. And while I still like a 1911 for range and target use I also believe it's days as a front line defensive weapon have passed. I also have used a lot of DA revolvers over the years and while I prefer a semi, appreciate a revolver as well.
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Oh really?
 
I use the safeties on my guns for loading and unloading...and on my striker fired weapons for holstering. Once securely holstered and the trigger covered the safety is switched off. After that it's trigger discipline.
 
I've only been shooting and/or carrying semi-auto pistols for about 45 years now, so I'm not sure that my opinion on the issue of safeties on pistols is any more credible than anyone else's... but...

In my opinion, we should stop obsessing about what type of safety our pistols have or do not have, and worry far more about continuing to train with the specific pistol we decide to use as our primary defensive pistol.
 
Darn good reason (for me) to stick to 1911 style pistols. I learned to shoot handguns on an old GI 1911 over 50 years ago, guess I ought to stick to what my body knows. When I pick up a semiauto, my thumb is on the safety.
I would recommend that whichever system you use, stick to it, avoid the possibility of a mistake.
I will always have a positive safety, I think the thumb safety on my 1911s are the easiest to use. As for accuracy, I can pick up and one of my 1911's and empty a mag into a paper plate at 50 ft - most of the time (As the eyes age and practice decreases it is getting more challenging.)
 
The gun manufacturers are not designing guns for many of the people on this posting. They are designing for military and police contracts, for the most part. The people in these organizations may or may not be gun people, so the safety designs reflect past practices that buyers are familiar with and popular trends. If you had to train people who ARE NOT INTERESTED IN SHOOTING, you might not want to make the process more difficult by adding a manual safety and giving the marginally trained user something to forget when that pistol is needed.
This is one of the HUGE appeals of the GLOCK and similar guns. Along with their reliability, light weight and low likely hood of rusting due to poor maintenance practices.

The BERETTA and SMITH & WESSON metal framed guns were designed not to be carried with the safety on. So the safety is there to decock and to put the gun on safe when you are told to or when not shooting. By the way, several law enforcement agencies have taught to carry guns like the BERETTA 92 on safety and the slide mounted safety works very well for this. Slide your thumb down when reaching for the pistol and flip the safety forward and upward in one motion. It adds a layer of protection in a gun grab. However, it is something that has to be practiced over and over, just like flipping the safety off a 1911.

If you have a decocker with a passive safety design, like the SIG 220, 225, 228, 229, 230, 232 and 239, you can skip having a safety mounted on the frame or slide and go for the very easy to use SIG style with the lever ahead of the right thumb. This however, is not easy on left handed shooters, who do better with a slide mounted decocked mounted on both sides of the slide, like the BERETTA92 G series of pistols.

I think that if you want to put in the time to practice and practice to make sure you will turn off the safety, on any style of gun, that is fine. On my CZ pistols, which come in both frame mounted 1911 style of safety or a decocker variants, I want the decocker.
Same with my carry guns. I would not carry a 1911 pistol, if I had a choice, although many years ago, when I started shooting, the 1911 was my pistol of choice.

I frequently carry one of my old BERETTA 92D police trade-in pistols, when off duty. These are double action only pistols without any type of manual safety and used to be nicknamed, slick slides because of it. Like the GLOCK style of pistol, you draw the gun, aim and fire. Nothing else needs to be done. BERETTA started the trend of using light springs to get a good double action trigger, like a well made or tuned revolver.

just my opinion,

Jim
 
I've never used a safety. I do have a few guns that have them but I couldn't tell you if they go up or down. It makes no difference to me, kind of a useless control to many of us.
 
Do you fellas honestly think that you'll need to carry a gun and have a quick draw one day to save your life from an attacker? What are the odds? It would seem that safeties are there to protect the owner from killing himself by accident.
 
MaverickDMD said:
Do you fellas honestly think that you'll need to carry a gun and have a quick draw one day to save your life from an attacker? What are the odds? It would seem that safeties are there to protect the owner from killing himself by accident.
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If we just go by the odds nobody would need to carry at all, wouldn't having to tool available in a usable fashion be better than not, just in case you get to be the lucky one who bucks the odds?

But honestly, this is a forum for gun enthusiasts to discuss gun stuff.
 
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