Thanks for all the awesome info guys! All well noted!
I know lots f you carry this sidearm everyday, and are safe with it. I am no idiot myself, I do not play with guns so I can only assume I will be safe carrying.
But since I will only be doing it a few days a year when I am not in this communist hell hole of a state, I just wanted to see what the oppinions where and what my options are.
Thanks again!
All mechanical safeties can and will fail. The number one safety is between your ears. But as had been written previously the glock as well as any of the other striker fired pistols with no external safeties leave no room for error. You must train yourself to always keep your finger off of the trigger. You must also train yourself to clear the holster of any obstructions prior to reholstering the weapon.
For most of us not in law enforcement who have CCW permits re-holstering a weapon is less of an issue. Your weapon should be concealed at all times. The only time you would need to re-holster without using both hands (one to clear the holster and one to re-holster) would be after you were required to defend yourself. At that point your training/practice will hopefully take over and you would re-holster safely. The times where you re-holster in a vehicle for example should be few and far between.
All of that being said though, the only striker fired pistol I carry is an XD because I want that added insurance of the grip safety. When I holster it my thumb is placed over the rear of the slide to keep it in battery as I holster the weapon. This removes any pressure from the grip safety.
Exactly.
The choice of a holster is important but more important by far is being familiar with the pistol and it’s manual of arms. Practice drawing, shooting, dry fire lots. Take a class or two if you can.
Revolvers don’t have safeties either don’t know why people fear the lack of an external safety on Glocks. Get a Kydex holster that covers up the triggerguard and keep your finger off the trigger until you are on target.
Because most revolvers have a different trigger pull. People are right to be concerned about the Glock trigger if they are not familiar with the pistol, safety, or shooting.
The most dangerous part of CCW-ing a striker-fired gun is during holstering. Seems like that is the most likely time for negligence to bite you in the arse.
Thusly, if you are 100% switched on during CCW (like you should be) then you should be 110% switched on during holstering.
Many of the NDs that have happened at local ranges or classes were during holstering. Indexing along the frame works for me.
I believe if you have kids and/or gangster/appendix carry, #2 is the only way to go with a Glock.
Revos have 8 - 12 lb trigger pulls and external hammers. If something gets in the trigger guard when you’re reholstering, you’ll have the tactile sensation of either the hammer being cocked or simply resistance to the act of reholstering itself. Most Glocks have 3.5 - 5.5 triggers with short trigger pulls and no external hammer to warn you the gun is getting cocked - there is way less margin for error.
After listening to Todd Green’s AIWB lecture, I firmly believe nobody should AIWB with a gun that doesn’t have an external hammer, or at the very, very least a manual safety. The whole idea scares the bejeezus out of me.
With an external hammer it is almost impossible to fire the weapon when you place your thumb on the hammer. At some point I’m going to have to find a way to put up on youtube a demonstration of this. If you take a DA handgun with an external hammer, hook the trigger on something solid and lean into it with your full body weight…while your thumb is pressing on the hammer…and the hammer will not move.
While it may be fashionable in some circles to deny the basic truths of physics in favor of a certain type of handgun, reality doesn’t change. The ability to put your thumb on the hammer can provide a great safety benefit when reholstering. A large federal LE agency has actually done studies on accidental/negligent discharges and has found that longer trigger pulls offer better protection against them than a shorter travel trigger.
I carry a striker-fired handgun with no manual safety, and a roughly 5 pound short-travel trigger every day…and I do so without inordinate amounts of fear. It’s not unsafe, but a weapon like that has less of a margin for error than some other types of handguns. That’s just the simple reality of it. To compensate I’ve adopted some procedures that help minimize the chances of an AD…especially since I now carry appendix most of the time.
Glocks/M&P’s/similar designs are not inherently unsafe…but neither are they forgiving when it comes to handling errors. People shouldn’t be terrified of them, but they should have a realistic understanding of what they are dealing with.