Thanks for your comments. I can assure you that if you holster with safety ON you will more than once forget to disengage it before your next gunfight, and as a leftie, you will be out of luck.

I now only purchase firearms that are user-friendly for lefties, with one compromise- the Shield. And I may sell that too if it p*ss*s me off.

I've sold the Bersa Thunder, Sig SP2009, Polish P-64 for that sole reason. The Shield will be my one and only pistol that has a non-friendly (left-sided only) thumb safety. The only issue will be whether I use it at all, because I do like to chamber round, field strip, and clear weapon with safety ON.

However, since the CA Compliant version has the requisite magazine disconnect, I see even less reason to touch that darn safety, so I am going to use it, if at all, re holstering issues, and with pocket holsters I don't even bother.

I tend to favor the Beretta 92FS as my ideally suited firearm, but it's too big for pocket carry. With that firearm I always chamber round with safety ON, as well as clear it and field strip with it ON. Why? Because it's safer in my view. I do it because the safety/decocker is ambidextrous.

Thanks for helping me come to my decision NEVER to use the manual safety on the Shield. I would carry it only in a pocket holster and mine is coming with the mag disconnect safety feature. The leftie part of me says 'don't use the effen thing'... just keep 'finger off the trigger'...'treat me like a revolver'...