Most cops in the US(inb4 I said professionals, not pigs!) carry Glocks, which only have a trigger safety. Which from a use standpoint is basically no safety.
There's also the mechanism on the grip. Glocks have pretty reliable safety mechanisms even if they dont have a switch.
That's how Plaxico Burress shot himself. Carried a Glock into a club and had an "accidental discharge". The proper term is negligent discharge, and the only possible way to get that is to fully clasp the grip and pull the trigger.
he had it in his waistband, if I recall correctly. for extra stupidity points.
Yeah. He reached inside to "adjust" it, clasped the grip and put his finger on the trigger to move it around, and blammo! Shot himself in the thigh. So much stupidity to lead to a negligent discharge. Why is anyone even bringing a firearm to a nightclub where alcohol is being served? Plax, you're rich, if you're worried hire a bodyguard. Lots of famous people do. Then you can get blitzed while Anthony keeps his eyes on the crowd.
Because they like the feeling of being in control behind the wheel. After you're well off enough to not need money any more, tons of rich people keep doing it. Many never stop until the day they die, long after they stopped needing money. The reason is the mental reward, the sense of control over their lives and the lives of others. It feels awesome to them and there's nothing they like more.
I'm honestly hard pressed to think of a better set of rules than the four rules of gun safety.
The purpose of a safety is to make the gun not go off if you drop it. The original full name is "drop safety". The easiest way to do that is to have a switch that makes it impossible for the hammer to fall, the firing pin to hit the primer, or whatever and keep the switch on when you aren't shooting. That way if you drop the gun it can't go off.
Guns "without a safety" still actually have a safety. It's just automatic in some way, so you don't have to use a switch. Usually it's something that blocks the striker or hammer from falling until the trigger is partially pulled.
This is why if a gun has a manual safety, you should use it, even when modern practice is that handguns shouldn't have a manual safety. It's not a modern doctrine changed because reasons, it's the way that firearms function mechanically has changed, and the doctrine changed to match that.
I vaguely recall some operator types believing that their fingers are safe enough and don't follow much gun safety stuff. I think I believe it; special forces tend to be insular hyper-masculine (among other things) cultures.
I thought that shit was so cool when Eric Bana's (fictional) character from Black Hawk Down did it
I was, like, 9 lmao
edit: omg my 69th comment!!!
I can't read or hear the words Black Hawk Down without thinking Black Cock Down anymore because of the deprogram
Every gun manufactured since the 19th century has a safety on it.
Glocks are very common in actual cop and military use and have no real safety (just a small anti-snag thing on the trigger).
The Glock also has a mechanism on the grip that must be depressed. The only way to make the gun go off is to hold it like you're going to shoot it and pull the trigger.
They have this because too many people got shot while in danger, and they couldn't get the safety off their gun.
there are people who carry with no safety mechanism whatsoever
Really? What kind of gun doesn't have a safety? They've been a part of firearms since the 19th century. You have to go back to the age when craftsmen made guns to find them without safeties.
Oh I have one of those. I have the version with the safety.
Even with the safety off it would be OK though. It has a grip safety and you really need to be holding it like you're shooting it in order to fire.
I like the actual safety though, because I don't carry the thing, and I know it's not worth it to lack that switch safety.
I don't think a lot of people die because they are losing draws like a bunch of cowboys, compared to people just blowing their head off because their gun was unsafe
which led me to assume that there are guns without a thumb or trigger or grip safety
:jesus-cleanse:
No. There aren't.
What you're talking about is called a "thumb safety" and lots of guns don't have them. This isn't new, either, the Glock 17 came out in 1982.
Nevermind, the Taurus does have a switch safety.
But the P320 only has an external safety device in the M17/M18 configuration
Not a kind of gun you would carry, but I one an old shotgun that just has a trigger and a hammer
The hammer is basically a safety, the gun won't go off unless you manually cock it.
Single action firearm. In single action the the hammer is the safety.
Yes. When you're not using it or not expecting to use it the gun safety is on. You also train an absurd amount of the time practicing with your firearm and instinctively drilling the flick of the safety on/off into muscle memory whenever you are going to use the firearm for its intended purpose.
As I understand it safeties on auto-loading pistols were developed to stop the gun from firing when dropped, so that they're as safe to carry as a revolver.
Also seriously don't trust any gun to be safe, ever, seriously.
Pretty much every law enforcement agency carry Glocks, which don't have a manual safety.
