Why do so many people complain about magazine disconnects?

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If the latest golf clubs wouldn't let you swing unless it made contact with a ball, that too would irritate me; especially if it raised the cost, made it more complicated than it needs to be, and increased by any amount possible problems.
 
I just don't like things forced down my throat, be it mag disconnect or internal lock, or a lawyer. It's the same view I hold about smoking. I don't smoke, but I support smokers having a designated place in the public area that they can have it their way. So I'd vote against increase of tobacco tax. I think it's the same tactics antis use to ban the guns by making them more and more out of reach of my salary. One day, I might choose to BE a smoker, like I chose to buy my first gun...
 
How many stories have you heard where someone unintentionally fired a gun that they "thought" was unloaded because they removed the magazine? This only started happening after the introduction of magazine disconnect safeties. Unthinking people started assuming that if the mag was removed a pistol was "safe". Now granted this is a personnel problem, not a hardware problem but the logic behind it began with the introduction of the magazine disconnect safety. If a firearm has one positive functioning safety, adding additional ones causes more problems than it solves in my opinion.
 
I would rather have a few useless features that satisfy the liberal anti-gunners than have them all over our back.
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They will never be satisfied until none of us have guns. So why concede anything to them. It's like the story about the guy in the tent and his camel.

Someone else said it already but ... If someone is trying to take your gun you really ought to be using the trigger not the mag release.

Why don't I like the mag disconnect? I have one gun I've dry-fired a lot with no magazine in it. At the time I had only two magazines and both were full. If I would have had a mag disconnect then I would have had to empty one of the mags to do the dry-firing. Plus as others have said, why have extra parts that do you no good and can only cause you problems?
 
What if your awesome uber-tactical CCW training is no match for your attacker? I can think of plenty of situations where you might be in a struggle like rolling on the floor with your attacker and the best thing you could do is hit the mag release and remove the gun from the equation.
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So you're physically outmatched, rolling around on the floor getting your ass kicked......

I'm sorry, I can't think of any situation that would be made better by relinquishing the only force equalizer I have available to me. If I can get that sucker in my hand it ain't going to be to drop the magazine. I guess you could drop the mag and hand it over to him and say, "Here, hit me with this, your fists are killing me."

I have a couple of BHP's. I like a consistent trigger pull on any gun. The trigger pull changed with every different mag I used as the mag safety rode up and down on the mag. While I'm sure there are some with a BHP that think they have a nice trigger, the fact is if they would remove the mag safety it would be a better trigger. The only gun I have now with the mag safety is a BDA .380 and the only reason it's still in there is that it doesn't affect trigger pull.
 
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I do own a couple of pistols that came with mag disconnects. BHPs to be specific. For me the disconnects are unwanted and unneeded. They are now located in my parts box. Can't imagine what kind of lawyer that would allow their removal to be an issue in a self defense situation. The design of the BHP disconnect, causes a terrible trigger pull and prevents the mags from dropping free. Can't imagine tolerating these issues when they are so easily fixed.
str1
 
I've never understood the concept of one round, rack, and load in a fresh round to make it an impromptu "bolt action pistol." I've never seen anyone train for such a maneuver, and one would assume under stress that it would be heinously more difficult fitting a bullet into a chamber after thumb-locking the slide stop up.

Please, someone demonstrate that single-loading operation in any range training situation, because so do we train, so do we fight.

Plus - if THE MAGAZINE is lost.

Who carries only one magazine?
 
It's easy to make an argument for or against mag disconnects. Best one I can think of, is they serve no practical purpose. Then too, it would be nice to have an operational pistol if the bad guy interrupts you in the middle of a fumbled tac load. That one round loaded in the chamber could make all the difference. Haven't ever had to single load, but I damn sure want the option! Have to confess, I frequently carry only the magazine in the gun, depending of location and situation. After carrying a full duty load for all those years, I travel light when I can.
str1
str1
 
One of the arguments commonly made against the removal of magazine safeties is that doing so increases the owner's potential legal exposure in the event that the pistol is used in a defensive shooting. In other words, the fear is that some slick ADA is gonna make hay of the fact that the safety was removed, and use that fact to paint a negative picture of our poor gun owner.

The argument, of course, breaks down when confronted with the fact that most firearms are sold multiple times and owned by multiple folk. Specific to this discussion, I have bought/sold a half dozen BHPs/clones and ALL save one were bought with the magazine cutout already having been removed by a previous owner.

The notion that the ADA or civil attorney can paint me as reckless because of the lack of this feature is completely baseless when it can be shown that the firearm was purchased used and no documentation exists as to the presence/absence of the safety when purchased.
 
DougDubya said:
I've never understood the concept of one round, rack, and load in a fresh round to make it an impromptu "bolt action pistol." I've never seen anyone train for such a maneuver, and one would assume under stress that it would be heinously more difficult fitting a bullet into a chamber after thumb-locking the slide stop up.
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That isn't a very good reason to add an interlock.
Anyway, if you are firing a round without a magazine in, it is either your last, or perhaps you were surprised during a reload.

I didn't add an interlock to keep me from firing the pistol with the barrel full of pureed skunk while I was in removing the mag interlock, by the way. Can you provide an example of when you would fire the gun with the barrel full of pureed skunk? Should we have interlocks to prevent that?
 
I can see the logic of arguments AGAINST the magazine disconnect.

Your situation for being surprised DURING a reload really knocks out the practicality of the disconnect. It's a) an exceedingly likely and common situation, and b) a solid argument against not being fire the one in the pipe.

Much better than the "bolt action pistol" idiocy which is something that I've never heard of happening.

Great argument, Dave, and one that's turned me off of the mag-drop safety.
 
There are many good reasons NOT to have a mag disconnect. I can't think of a single valid reason to have one. As I mentioned earlier, I may never need to fire my pistol without a mag, but I damn sure want the option. Probably the most compelling common sense argument against a disconnect is, it's just unnecessary parts that could fail rendering the pistol inoperable. As long as I have a choice, my pistols will not be equipped with one an longer than it takes to remove it.
str1
 
DougDubya said:
Great argument, Dave, and one that's turned me off of the mag-drop safety.
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WUT?
I previously thought that:
1-nobody is ever convinced of anything based on an internet debate
2-using "pureed skunk" in a reply would be doomed from the moment I hit the "post" button

I will have to use the "pureed skunk" debate tactic more often!
Seriously though, DougDubya, I'm glad I was able to sum up my personal theory on the M.I. feature, at least someone sees the silliness of that alleged "safety" device.

doubs43, why don't you like the grip interlock? I've never heard of one failing (not that I've looked) in the hands of a proficient user, and I've always liked the concept of an interlock that required a purposeful grip to fire the gun.
 
I don't like them, but it did make me pause when Massad Ayoob pointed out more than one case where an officer's life was saved because he got into a scuffle, was able to eject the magazine, and draw a backup piece while the BG was trying to figure out why the gun didn't work.
 
Problems with magazine disconnects?

hmm....

01. More parts that complicate the operation of the weapon
02. screws up the trigger pull
03. requires that you have to have a magazine in while dry firing (accident waiting to happen)

and the last, and most important thing about them

THEY ARE ANNOYING! :neener:
 
bigfatdave said:
WUT?
I previously thought that:
1-nobody is ever convinced of anything based on an internet debate
2-using "pureed skunk" in a reply would be doomed from the moment I hit the "post" button
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Nope. My name's not Lil Lebowski. I can see logical arguments.

I'm debating the balance of usefulness of an off button on a gun without an off switch versus the deadly situation you've postulated.
 
I'll throw this out with regards to semi-auto pistols and magazine disconnectors...

I have been in a ground fight where the magazine in my CCW holstered pistol was ejected onto the pavement and out of reachable recovery. At that point, I was down to one round (in the chamber), which I briefly considered using.

For that reason alone, I always carry at least one extra magazine (and refuse to carry any semi-auto with a functioning magazine disconnector).

Might that single round have sufficed? Maybe...maybe not. Is a grappling match statistically more likely than a gunfight? I think so.

If I were serving as a uniformed LEO, I might rethink the disconnector question. I think a policeman would be more likely to encounter daily situations that escalate to a hand to hand struggle...with the associated worry of disarmament by their opponent.

I'm military, invariably accompanied by armed friends, and normally operate under a lot less restrictive ROE than civilian US police. Whoever goes for my personal space in a combat zone gets shot dead (if not by me, then a nearby battle buddy).

I continue to abhor magazine disconnecters.
 
Unloading showing clear and dropping the hammer in IDPA was a pain until I removed it on my HP clone. That meant I had to unload, and take an empty mag out of my front pocket, show the RO it was empty, drop the hammer, remove the magazine, put it away then holster my weapon. If I had an RO who didn't know how a hi-power worked, that caused some HEY WHY ARE YOU PUTTING A MAGAZINE BACK IN? Moments.

Removing it also improved the trigger pull and made the magazines drop free.

I think the mag disconnector has more negatives than positives.
 
The magazine disconnect on the S&W M&P doesn't affect the trigger, it is a sear disconnector that realigns everything when a mag is present in the well.

When I was a LEO, I carried a third gen S&W with the mag disconnect. I liked the peace of mind when open carrying my sidearm that if I were ever losing a retention battle, I could drop the mag, spin away, and get my 638 BUG into action while my main weapon was useless to the BG.

As a regular Joe, I am take them or leave them. I would remove the one from a BHP for instance because the disconnect does affect that pistol's performance.
 
When I was a LEO, I carried a third gen S&W with the mag disconnect. I liked the peace of mind when open carrying my sidearm that if I were ever losing a retention battle, I could drop the mag, spin away, and get my 638 BUG into action while my main weapon was useless to the BG.
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I still don't get it.
If you have time to drop the mag, you have time to pull the trigger.
If your gun is snatched from your holster, you don't have a chance to drop the mag.
If you are rolling on the ground with someone and they are trying to pry your gun away, I don't see how employing deadly force is an issue.

Not to recycle an internet meme, but... if someone ever hurts me with my gun, it will be by beating me to death with it, as it will be fired empty before it leaves my hands.
 
Not true at all. You feel a hand on your gun, yor first response is to put our hand over the one on your gun.

I love mag disconnects. I know two cops who are here today because of them. Not to mention the added bonus of the "not so gun savvy" dropping a mag and thinking the gun is unloaded.

Wish all my guns had them.
 
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