For striker-fired pistols with manual safeties, the M&P is the top of the food chain, IMO. That’s why I chose a M&P 9c with manual safety for civilian concealed carry. As for the safety vs non-safety argument, “the question is moot”.
The engagement and style of the M&P safety is a lot like the 1911 and similar variants. It will feel familiar and instinctive to those who are experienced with this very common manual of arms.
Ruger makes nothing that excites me, and I’m open to hammer-fired pistols. In comparing the M&P to similar offerings from HK and Glock, I found the M&P to be more ergonomic. It had a higher capacity in a size that was seemingly equal for my preferred mode of carry. The M&P’s wider site radius and visually obvious build quality also stood out. S&W’s customer service is the best I’ve dealt with, and I’ve sampled a few.
Not being too much of a trigger snob, I found the M&P’s trigger and overall shootability to be more than acceptable in stock form. My particular M&P is exceptionaly accurate and easy to shoot. It is frequently the crowd favorite on range trips where everyone brings their wares. Mine has only 1,200 rounds through it, but it has never failed for me or anyone else who has tried to choke it.
To the OP: The M&Ps are well designed. Ergonomics, low boar axis, and controllability during rapid fire, are the main virtues of the pistols. The triggers are hit or miss, depending on the weapon. My two 9s had OK triggers but the .40 and .45 had pretty good triggers. I never had an issue with the stock versions. That said, I have all Apex sears and striker blocks in my four.
“Cops are proficient, so they choose weapons without a manual safety. The general public in my opinion would be better served by a manual safety.”
I must respectfully disagree with the above. The average citizen exercising their right to CCW, as well as plain clothed officers, are much LESS likely to have an attempted gun-grab compared with a uniformed LE officer whose handgun is exposed. As I have previously discussed, I strongly prefer having a manual safety on a pistol that is used for uniformed LE use, as I have twice seen officers’ lives potentially saved when another person gained control of their pistols, but the engaged manual safety prevented the weapons from firing–I don’t like to think about the outcome if the pistols involved had been a Glock, Sig, XD, revolver, or other handgun without a manual safety…
In addition, in this area, there have been dramatically more LE ND’s with service pistols lacking manual safeties, compared with those which have them.
So far I have GLOCKs and love them. Will probably have an M & P but in NO hurry! If you get a GLOCK get a Gen 3 as there are more options for accessories. Mine are RTFs and I love them!
OP: I’d suggest you try both before you buy. Personally, I have opted for M&Ps because I find the hinged trigger much preferable to the “bladed” triggers as found in Glocks, XPs, and the SR9. To me, it feels as natural as a revolver trigger.
As to the safety issue, police (and civilians) carried DA revolvers for years without major problems, why should I treat my striker fired pistols any differently? Keep the booger hook off the happy button until the target is in the sights. Just my $.02
I just recently saw an SR9 at my range that had a lock work issue and would not reset the striker every time. This is only the 2nd SR9 I have seen at the range.
We see M&Ps in all different forms a lot more and I have yet to see an M&P that doesn’t go bang every time the trigger is pulled.
I realize the above is a very small sampling, but it does tend to make an impression. Still, my thoughts are that while the SR9 looks to be a nice (very comfortable - and perhaps a better consealment) pistol, the M&P is a world class pistol and considering they are both in the same price range, the M&P would be my 1st choice easy. Also, since we are talking manual safeties, the safety on the M&P is larger and more of a “combat style” safety than on the SR9. The SR9s manual safety is small and I think could be harder to reach under stress (I know you are not thinking on using your gun for self defense but it is still something to consider). As I recall, the SR9 was never designed to have the manual safety, but this was an afterthought add on that came about by the lawyers. The manual safety on the M&P was also an afterthought put on by Smith to allow the M&P45 to compete in the DOD .45ACP pistol trials.
