Given a choice, with or without TS and why?
If you had your M&P massaged and finessed by a known vendor with a smooth light trigger, would your answer still be the same?
With/Without?
http://www.gandrtactical.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=209301 or the LEO equivalent…
I carry my M&P9 with an Apex DCAEK and RAM as a duty weapon and do not have the thumb safety. In fact, I made sure to get one without any additional safety(TS or MS). I’ve only ever had weapons without a traditional safety and am comfortable handling weapons without them. In a life and death scenario, I’d much rather have that one less motion to make. The Apex kit isn’t so light that the weapon will fire with a slight brush of the trigger. It still takes a concerted effort to pull the trigger.
I have the thumb safety but only because it is a convenient place to put my right thumb. Without it I tend to ride the slide release. I would be comfortable without it even with a light trigger as far as safety goes. It is an additional comfort when re-holstering but again I would be fine without it.
You can always get the thumb safety model and remove it if you don’t like it.
I prefer no TS but it’s easy to swap it out and put in some plugs.
I am not a fan of them because the orientation of my thumb is different from how a 1911 feels to me. This will largely depend on hand size though.
I have witnessed a lot of people shooting M&P’s with TS’s (square range and shoot houses). Many (if not all) will pull the gun out and forget to turn the safety off at some point.
You can always add a TS to the newer M&P’s (FYI).
C4
This post should be stickied 
I will add to it my opinion.
A long time ago, before we heard of a guy name Gaston Glock, we all wanted some kind of manual safety on a semi auto pistol. Then this Glock guy introduced his “Austrian Perfection” known as the Glock model 17 in the mid 80s. It has no external manual safety lever. At first everyone thought that users would be shooting themselves and others accidentally with this safety-less gun. Almost 30 years later, modern pistols without a manual safety lever is common, no one would think twice about carrying one. Outside of a few careless users, the safety-less semi auto is perfectly safe and for most, desireable.
I’ve seen some Glocks tricked out for competition and no one seemed to think a manual safety was necessary. The primary cause of most intended discharges of a firearm are caused by careless placement of the trigger finger in violation of Rule 3. To a lesser extent careless carriage comes into play, but I would bet there’s a trigger finger at issue in some of those too.
My dad’s a 65 year old Army vet who hadn’t touched a handgun for 40 years and wanted a 45 for home defense. He liked my M&P45 (non safety) and insisted on a model with a safety. So he got one. With no actual skills I tried to impress upon him the need to build the muscle memory to activate the safety but he blew it off, as most fathers would coming from their sons. He insisted his time with the 1911 40 years earlier was all he needed.
Fast forward to a range trip. I told him we’d some some semi stressful shoots (mostly time and movement to raise the heart rate). Well guess who forgot to swipe the safety about 50% of the time. :dirol:
I’m not saying this to besmirch my father, rather as a lesson that hopefully others can take and learn from. Nothing wrong with external safeties but they must become muscle memory. If not, under stress, they may well fail.
Kinda like after 12 years with a Sig DA/SA, changed to a Sig DAK. I kept trying to de-cock the SOB!
Grant, The actual reason I asked the question was because of the pistols you have listed in stock. Since the one with the TS also had NS already installed, I knew the TS could be removed. Planning an end around run so to speak.
When did this change? I thought you needed parts that smith wouldn’t sell?
Sent from my clutch hand while riding a wheelie…
10-12 months. They went with the TS SHB in all M&P’s.
I can order all the TS parts and sell them (if we so chose).
C4
All my handguns are no manual safeties, outside of my 1911 and P7. I only bought a M&P because I found one with no thumb safety, mag safety or safety lock.
My M&Ps are without safeties and I see no need for them.
No safeties on 3 of 4 M&Ps, and 3 of 4 have Apex hard sears and striker blocks. My full size M&P45 is the only one with a TS, with stock parts, and that’s because it ran great out of the box, including several high round count pistol courses, and I wanted a gun with a similar control setup as a 1911, which I first learned on.
Because I was a long time 1911 shooter, and had the TS part of the draw and presentation engrained, I would have opted for the TS had I had the choice when I purchased. In the People’s Republic of MA, I could not purchase with the TS. It didn’t take long to make the adjustment without the TS, and after market options allows for very satisfactory trigger for the costs and effort according to most.
I’m not a fan of the M&P TS - for my hand the 1911 safety is perfectly placed, but on the M&P my thumb has to ride high and I wind up feeling the safety in the lower part of my thumb with every shot. I’m sure I could get used to it but saw no reason to.
My full size M&P 9mm has no TS the way I like it, if I want to carry a gun with TS I have a S&W 5906.
I have one on both of my M&Ps’, but like Grant I find them to not be 1911 like. If they did then I would keep them. I recently started to shoot my 9MM with my thumb under the safety and found I shoot it better. The stretch to ride my thumb on the safety opens up my groups. Thinking of having the safeties removed.
I use crimson trace grips, so… a TS is out of the question.
I honestly don’t need one. My M&P 22 has one and I always forget to take it off when I practice with it, since my other M&Ps don’t have a TS. Hell, in the USAF, we don’t even carry our M9s on safe… the only time we touch the safety is to decock it.
When I first got into shooting I couldn’t imagine having, much less carrying, a gun without a manual safety. Only three years later and I really would not want one as my primary carry. In fact, I don’t know that I’d have one at all if I hadn’t always wanted a 1911. I find needing a thumb safety similar to the mentality of not carrying a round in the chamber.