Should your handgun have a manual safety?

US military new gun, the Sig P320
Fernando,
Your video showing the victims who went for guns that did not have a round in the chamber tells us that they most likely had pistols that did not have mechanical safeties, or if they did have safeties they did not have them engaged.
Either way, they probably thought that keeping the chamber empty was a way to keep the gun from being discharged accidentally by themselves or others who might pick it up.
We have exchanged notes before about the desirability or the undesirability of mechanical safeties on pistols.
While adherents of the no-safety guns make various arguments in defense of their position, a couple of points can be made.
I can send you many articles on many accidental shootings with guns that just “went off” and shot somebody.  These guns were fired by toddlers who somehow got their hands on them (gun owners’ neglect) all the way up to “highly trained” people such as law enforcement officers.  (Interesting that these articles don’t ever disclose the model of pistol involved—wonder if they are worried about legal liabilities.)
But since toddlers probably don’t know how to disengage a manual safety, and competent adults would not deliberately disengage a safety in an unsafe setting, we might conclude that these shootings overwhelmingly are with pistols that do not have a manual safety.
A few months ago, one of the popular gun magazines had an article by a lady firearms trainer who swore that she would never have a pistol with a safety, saying “That is just something else to fumble with” if she had to use her gun.  Strange—you would think that a professional would be trained to the point where there would be no “fumbling.”
Certainly, a gun with a round in the chamber and a manual safety engaged would have been better than the “rack and then shoot” scenarios in your video.
Larry
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Hello Larry,
That’s a good point but you have to keep in mind two words: police and military.
For concealed carry I can tell you one thing; Go with a Glock. Round chambered, no safety.
Your child should NOT take hold of your gun, a safety does not make you a good parent, it does not compensate for lack of training either.
Now for a cop that may lose his gun in a struggle with a suspect, a soldier that may lose his gun in a fight, maybe when handling prisoners, these can be reasons for a safety. I do remember though a cop that had a negligent discharge with his Beretta 92, a gun that has a safety. Safeties do not in any way compensate for improper gun handling. But when it comes to losing the gun to someone that may use it against you (and lack the training to quickly disengage the safety) it may save a life.  Maybe that’s why they required it for their new issued handgun, the Sig Sauer P320.  I bet special forces will stick to their Glocks though, and so should you. A well trained operator, civilian or military, will take the most advantage of a gun without manual safety and a chambered round.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”