Unsafe for carry?

[Handy]

Graystar,

In general, hammer fired guns have much more percussive force in their ignition than striker fired guns (Glock). The reason for this is the need to drive the inertial, rebounding firing pin against it's spring. You can demonstrate this to yourself by firing a pencil out of the barrel of a Glock and a hammered gun with percussion force only (pencil eraser resting against breachface). So while a striker may not fire from half cock, the considerably stronger hammer gun may.

Strikers are not firing pins, anyway. They are linear hammers with a firing pin fixed to the front- just as old revolvers have the pin attached to the hammer. They just don't compare.

There is another type of firing pin, it's usually refered to as "floating" and is the type Penman mentioned. It is longer than its channel and forms a direct link between hammer and primer. These are used in some of the old Stars, Tokarevs, Makarovs and AR-15s.

 

[Graystar]

In general, hammer fired guns have much more percussive force in their ignition than striker fired guns (Glock). The reason for this is the need to drive the inertial, rebounding firing pin against it's spring. You can demonstrate this to yourself by firing a pencil out of the barrel of a Glock and a hammered gun with percussion force only (pencil eraser resting against breachface). So while a striker may not fire from half cock, the considerably stronger hammer gun may.

Is this a measured fact? The problem I see with your test is that it looks like it measures velocity more than ft. lbs. of pressure. If I remember correctly, the Glock firing pin has more mass than a 1911 pin.

I was simply referring to the fact that the firing pin on a 1911 can move on its own, whereas in a Glock it can't.

 

[Handy]

It seems to be an established fact. Glock and some other striker guns have reputation for light strikes and difficulty with hard primers. Hammered guns do not.

The pencil thing isn't science, but it puts things into perspective. A 1911 will put the pencil into the ceiling tiles. A Glock will barely get the pencil out of the bore. And it doesn't just demonstrate velocity, it shows total momentum (velocity X mass) of the firing pin or striker.

A firing pin may be lighter than a striker, but it was launched by a hammer that is both faster and heavier than the striker. Since the light firing pin is moving so much faster than the striker, it ends up having more total momentum.

It is certainly possible to make a striker that hits as hard as a hammer/firing pin gun does. Bolt-action rifle strikers do. But the striker/mainspring that fits into a pistol slide does not, and usually doesn't need to. That's why striker fired DA guns generally have lighter trigger pulls than their rotating hammer cousins.

And to touch again on your last point, there is no need for new names. A striker is a hammer. No hammers should be able to move on their own. All firing pins have to.