Shield Owners, my question is about the Shield Thumb Safety. If I bought this gun I would chamber it and put the thumb safety on. My question is it easy to accidentally wipe the safety off?

I prefer a positive safety that will stay put until intentionally moved with moderate force of the thumb.

I thought this video was interesting. I wouldn't worry about the safety going on if I consistently practiced thumbing the thumb safety off as pistol sights came up on target.

S&W Shield's Deadly Flaw - YouTube

No, its not easy.

IMO, that guy in the video is either too stupid to realize he has a defective gun and it needs to go back to S&W or he's a liar. I suspect the latter. He admitted he's not a shield fan, and thats fine, but then he made up this ridiculous story to justify his ignorance, IMHO.

The saftey on the shield is pretty low profile and requires a deliberate action to move it.

I carry with safety off. My 9c does not have thumb safety and I carry that also.

It's not very easy on & off but imo the 9c has a more positive click when disengaging

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Using Tapatalk

IMO, the Shield manual safety was put on to make the gun compliant with states that require it, to be sold there. If it was meant to always be used, it'd be bigger, like on other guns. It's small, unobtrusive and out of the way with normal use.

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NRA R.S.O. & Life Member

I carry my Shield in an ISWB holster with the thumb safety on and have not had the safety disengage no matter what I am doing throughout the day.

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"Who Dares Wins!"

In a 1 1/2 of carrying and holstering/reholstering I've never had the safety move from where it was set. But easy enough to intentionally disengage with your thumb.

I leave the safety alone and it leaves me alone. If I ever see a need for it I will use it.

I've had a Shield for close to two years. The safety works fine. It stays on or off until I switch it. Sweeping it off takes just the right amount of force. In my opinion it would be better if the lever was a tad bigger.

This is the guy whose opinion you are asking about:


Any further questions?



P.S.
I haven't had the thumb safety on my Shield end up in any position that I didn't put it in myself.

+1 to Hillbilly77. I pocket carry my 40 Shield in a Desantis holster with the safety on. I've never had a problem with the safety switching off while in the holster. I think the vidiot is just a fool trying to whip up a controversy to spread his misinformation.

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Lounge Lizard Extraordinaire

Ditto everyone else... In almost 2 yrs of pocket carry (in pocket hoster, of course), mine has never unintentionally moved from the position I set it to.
IMO... Yankee Marshal's videos are a total waste of Bandwidth.

Yankee Marshal believes in the BOOGYMAN too!

Be careful about what opinion you trust. The guy you reference is a known whackadoo.

That said, I have never had a problem. However, my holster has an extended guard to cover the slide and safety....for comfort and extra margin of safety. I train to make it natural to draw and disengage the safety as I bring up and punch out the Shield.

The deadly flaw video is seriously flawed in itself. I really like the Shield safety and wish S&W made them that way for the entire M&P lineup.

I completely agree with this post. I never use mine except when holstering and that's probably just me being overly cautious (if there is any such thing). My routine is to disengage the safety once it's in the holster.

Mine has never once gone on or off by accident.

The only flaw is he's wearing a fanny pack. A fanny pack, seriously? It's 2014. I can't stand him. He tries to make controversial videos that end up not being controversial.

I've just bought my Shield (coming from a Glock) and I keep forgetting that it has a safety. Thus I've not used it yet.

My guess is he wasn't using a holster when his 'issue' happened. Or he's just a whackadoodle.