What’s the Best Safety There Is?

What’s the Best Safety There Is?
Should I Buy a Handgun That Doesn’t Have One?

 

There are all kinds of safety mechanisms that can be seen on modern handguns, ranging from the traditional safety lever, to grip safeties, trigger safeties, to no safety at all.  Even within the same manufacturer, there can be different configurations on different models; for example, on the Sig Sauer P365 line, there are models with and without user-activated safeties.  Same for Sig’s P320 line; the M17 variant has a traditional safety lever, but other 320 models can be purchased without one. The iconic Colt 1911 0.45 pistol (and its many knockoffs) uses both a grip safety and a manually operated safety lever. The modern Glock uses three safeties, but 2 are totally internal (a firing pin safety and a drop safety), while the third is automatically disengaged when the trigger is properly pulled. With all these variations, and no consensus amongst manufacturers on how or even IF to include a safety, it can be confusing to gun owners on whether they should consider a pistol, based on whether it has safeties built in.

 

In older generation handguns (especially hammer-fired weapons, as opposed to striker-fired), many handguns were NOT drop safe, meaning that they could discharge if they were dropped and hit the ground at the wrong angle. This was the origin of some early revolver users positioning an empty chamber under the hammer, so that if dropped, there was no round to accidentally discharge.  As handgun design and technology has improved, so have safety features.  Most modern handguns are now considered “drop safe”, and will not fire if dropped, regardless of how the gun hits the ground. In some sense, these modern weapons have a “safety”, albeit an internal one that is not user activated.

 

Of course, even if the weapon is fully drop-safe, that does not prevent a discharge if the trigger is snagged. That was the reason for the Colt 1911’s design, in which a grip safety had to be depressed (by squeezing the handle) to discharge the weapon. The Glock design at least partly addresses this, with a lever built into the trigger which is activated by the proper pull of the trigger with a finger, rather than just a mild snag of the tip of the trigger.

 

While all of these safety designs (along with the standard safety lever) provide an enhanced level of mechanical safety to the weapon, the two most basic safety mechanisms which are always reliable can be called “gun security” and “trigger finger discipline”.

 

Gun security (in this context) simply means handling and holstering the weapon in such a way that the weapon will not be dropped.  Proper grip technique, as well as strict adherence to proper deholstering/ reholstering techniques will ensure that the weapon is not dropped. As important as this is, if the weapon IS accidentally dropped, modern designs provide for redundant safety.

 

However, an even bigger fundamental habit that must be formed from the beginning of your time as a shooter is trigger finger discipline.  This means, quite simply, that until the very moment that you are prepared to shoot (which therefore means you are pointed on target, and in a safe direction), the trigger finger should NEVER be on the trigger or inside the trigger guard and is only moved to the trigger at the moment you are prepared to shoot.  Unless you are firing an immediate follow-up shot, the finger should immediately come off the trigger and out of the trigger guard after the shot. The safe location for the trigger finger is up (out of the trigger guard) and pointed straight along the frame of the gun, toward the muzzle. Many instructors use the phrase “high and uncomfortable” to describe where to place the trigger finger, as the (very slight) discomfort of this position is a reminder to the shooter that they are off the trigger. This is a skill that must be practiced (and enforced by those teaching new shooters) until it is a fully ingrained habit. Since a weapon should always be treated as loaded, this trigger finger discipline applies 100% of the time.

 

Trigger finger discipline is one of the most important safety rules a shooter should learn, before they ever fire their first round.  This is a habit which is drilled relentlessly into military shooters and is an area of gun handling that Hollywood sometimes ignores when showing characters with firearms. Next time you see a TV or movie character carrying a weapon, look to see where their trigger finger is. This will give a clue as to whether the actors were well trained or not!

 

So what safety system is the “best” or most important?  Without a doubt, trigger finger discipline takes first place as the most important safety ‘system’ when using and handling any weapon (handgun or long gun).  While mechanical safety systems have their place, none take the place of proper trigger finger discipline.

 

That being said, are handguns that do not have a user-operated safety “unsafe”?  Generally speaking, these weapon types (which include many popular concealed-carry models) can be considered safe to carry… if done properly. Remember, a user-activated safety system is only effective if it is engaged… which comes down to proper training. So, the training component (which includes use of the mechanical safety) becomes the MOST important aspect of gun safety, regardless of how the gun is equipped or designed. The best safety system for any weapon is a well-trained operator, who is trained and familiar with the weapon they are using. If the user is committed to that mindset, then consideration of what weapon to buy or use will move beyond the issue of whether there is a safety lever on the gun… and if the user is NOT committed to that mindset, then they should not be carrying a gun in the first place.