Quote:
Originally Posted by LuddhaBuddha
So, what exactly is a trained gun owner, and what is a responsible gun owner? I consider myself a responsible gun owner but I don't believe I am trained.
To me being trained means that you have attended a class such as Thunder Ranch, Front Sight, or something similar. I do not believe that everyone who wants to own a gun should have to go to one of these schools for training. Would they benefit from it, absolutely, that doesn't mean they are a moron and can't handle a gun safely without it.
I know the rules of gun safety, I practice drawing from concealment, tap rack drills, moving while firing, and so forth. I think this makes me more prepared and responsible but I do not consider myself "trained". If people follow gun safety rules then I do not think they need to be trained to be a safe and responsible gun owner.
I don't see how having one shot come from your gun in a life threating situation could possibly be worse than having no shots come from your gun. The argument that you wont know what to do from slide lock is silly. Practice by having a friend load your mags with snap caps randomly and do tap rack drills. If you do this you will have the motorskills ingrained into your body and it will be automatic problem solved.
Now on the other hand if someone pulls their mag disconnect equiped gun out to use it and the mag isn't fully seated and nothing happens when they pull the trigger how could this possibly be better than the other scenario? You still have a gun thats worth about as much as a rock, and if you panic like you seem to think everyone will you have the same problem as you would without the mag safety only you got no shots off instead of one. Again if you practice tap rack drills you have solved the same problem that the other guy had only you didn't get that first round off that may have stopped or slowed your attacker down enough to keep him from chopping you up with a machete.
So in my opinion the slide lock argument for the mag safety makes absolutly zero sense, and the only argument I can see for it is when an officer is fighting for or has already had his gun taken. Fine I can live with that if the police want them for this feature great for them. The situation in which this feature would be good for me I can not see at all, it's not as useless to me as the firing pin safety that I disabled on my 1911 but it almost is.
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Those schools are largely scams, if you ask me. You pay lots of money to pretend you're Rambo for the weekend. Again, just my opinion. Last week on SWAT TV, they were at the SIG Sauer Academy teaching a bunch of Rambo wanna-be's what to do in the event of a terrorist attack. One of the instructors gets up holding an AK. he says "This is the weapon they will be using. If you can shoot one of them with your pistol, take their weapon and make it work against them". Who the hell is going to go up against a bunch of terrorists with a pistol, then take their Ak's and engage them with that? Pure fantasy.
And the slide lock argument was valid, but you just lack the experience to support it. The odds of you remembering to tactically reload are almost non-existent. even Buff, the robbery homicide cop who was kind enough to contribute his real world experiences, could only say 'about how many rounds he fired" and only tactically reloaded after the shooting was done before he reholstered. If you think you're going to remember to reload during a gunfight that you almost certainly won't ever get into, you are mistaken, ESPECIALLY since you haven't had any formal instruction. And you will be so terrified that you will probably drop the mag, or try to put it in backwards If you do, that one shot MIGHT stop the attacker, but in my experience seeing many people shot, it probably won't. Now you have an empty gun that will require two hands to reload since the slide isn't locked back. And you very well might not even realize the gun is empty, since the slide isn't locked back.