Your Opinions please, I'm leaning to NO SAFETY VERSION.

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NRA Pistol/Rifle Inst. RSO

Whichever YOU like.

I happen to like a thumb safety and use it. Train with it, carry with it....
BUT you could also have a pistol with a TS and just not use it if you so desire. I've never heard of one operating itself. If you are left handed you should note the TS is not ambidextrous on this pistol that I can tell.

I had a shield in 9mm with safety and traded it in for a non safety one. IMO it is pointless carry a gun with the safety on, don't have a shield 45 yet but looking to buy without the thumb safety, also looks cleaner.

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M&P 9, Shield9.

My LGS clerk says 45 Shields with a TS are in high demand and hard to find in the supply chain, vs. non-TS models that are plentiful and cheap, $384 + tax being their price when they have them. Just one anecdotal qualitative data point. S&W would never reveal but it would be interesting to know the production numbers of TS and non-TS Shields.

I went with no TS

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I certainly didn't pay $384, but I did go with the version with the safety. Old habits, etc.

Likewise as others stated, thumb safety for me. All my semi-autos are so-equipped, thus consistency wins. My only "pistol" not equipped with safety is pocket carry Ruger LCP (in DeSantis Nemesis) but that's DAO with long trigger pull.

My Shield 9 had a safety, and it worked fine. My Shield .45 doesn't have the thumb safety for two reasons. First, they didn't have any with the safety when I bought mine. Second, I tried one with the safety when they finally got one in, just didn't care for it. It's a personal thing for most.

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SFC, US Army, Retired

So if you train and carry already with a TS, why would you not get one so equipped? Consistency is a good thing.

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Both my 1911s have a thumb safety as does my Sig 938 so the manual of arms is consistent. I also pocket carry without a holster so I prefer the TS. No matter whose pocket carry holster you use it adds to the overall thickness and it may come out with the gun when you draw. So I prefer to pocket carry without a holster

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To be forgiven, I must forgive

No thumb safety on mine.

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High Caliber History

Safety yes...however never really use it other than an additional feature when not in use. I'd rather have than not -- and use when needed. Never use it otherwise and probably wouldn't miss it that much if removed.


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Absolutely NO safety. I even put some epoxy on the trigger to keep that safety off.

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I got the Shield 45 with the safety. Reason, they did not have a non - thumb safety in stock... I could not wait. :-) I am like a kid in the candy store.

Before I got into the M&P's, I was strictly a 1911 guy. So I have trained extensively for using a thumb safety. So I have the TS on my M&P carry guns. You do have to train for the TS use so that it is muscle memory, otherwise I believe the TS can be a liability in a high stress SD situation.

I prefer my defense gun have no safety. I own both a 9mm and .45acp Shields with safeties...I couldn't wait for no safety models either.

Honestly I find the safety on the Shield is a non-issue. It is small and very positive on and off. I leave my Shields safeties off. I've never bumped them on by accident. To move them to safe takes avery deliberate action on the part of the shooter.

So I say buy what you can find at the best price. If your a safety person get one with the safety. If your a no safety person buy which ever you can find cheaper.

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Bill Bates

It's a free country, and it's your gun, but that piece is dangerous without a trigger safety, whether it has a TS or not. A striker fired M&P is essentially a single action pistol, albeit with a sloppy, springy pull and a striker plunger safety, both of which work to prevent the pistol from firing unless you deliberately pull the trigger. Would you carry a cocked S&W revolver? Why not pull out that pesky striker plunger safety and smooth up the single action pull? Just don't drop it.

Hope you don't touch it off when you don't mean to. I'm sure you're safe with your M&P, whatever you do with it, but I don't think you'll get much support for deactivating your trigger safety, and a range officer would take a dim view. The safe action trigger is one of the features that made Glocks and S&W Sigma/M&P so popular, safe, and easy to use. Point and pull in a safe platform when the social situation goes to pot.

The Shield safety is non obstrusive, easy enough to ignore or use. Makes no difference.

'Nuff said.

I was a wheel gun guy until I met the MP45, I never really understood safeties. ��

I was joking around about putting epoxy on the trigger on the M&P. However, look at the Sig Sauer P320. They have no manual thumb safety, nor do they have a safety on the trigger itself. They make a subcompact model as well, which makes for a fantastic carry piece. Light like a Shield, but double stack, and not much wider.

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My shield has a thumb safety. Its my EDC, I like it that way.
For me operating the safety is as automatic as pulling the trigger.

If I was buying new and was unsure if I wanted it, I would buy with. You can always choose to not use it.

That's like saying you are going to buy a F-150 pick up truck, but you want people's opinion whether it should be black, or white in color. Get which ever version YOU are comfortable with. It doesn't matter what other people like. What matters is what YOU like. Mine has no safety by the way. GARY

Its hard to keep a white truck clean...

Its the internet, folks are bound to tell you what they think. Might as well ask up front.

You must not have ever had a black vehicle if you say it's hard to keep a white vehicle clean. I've had black, never again. My wife and I both have white vehicles actually they don't show dirt nearly as bad as many other colors.

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To be forgiven, I must forgive

Yeah, a black vehicle that's dirty really shows it, but a white vehicle that's dirty just looks off white, or beige.

Thanks guys! Points are easier to make when everyone helps. lol

My 9mm Shield has a safety. My 45 Shield does not. I carry the 9mm with the safety off but I can flick the safety off if I ever have it on.

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Shield 45

Have it, never use it, and not losing sleep over it.


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Its no secret. Most police officers that carried the FS S&W pistol preferred one with no manual safety. For nearly a hundred years LE (city to FBI) carried revolvers. The double action trigger was the safety.
Today, a semi-auto without the manual safety is a double action
trigger___ that's the safety.
When the perp is pointing a weapon at you or firing all that you do, regardless of all of that "training"___you point and pull the trigger!
Been there.
Poli Viejo

The purpose of the Thumb Safety(TS) is to reduce incidents of accidental discharges during day to day gun handling. We are hopefully all professionally trained in proper handling technique and will always keep our finger clear of the trigger guard until sights are on target and we intend to fire. In the perfect world the TS is an additional safety. In the industrial world, additional safeties are used when performing maintenance on potentially dangerous equipment. Insurance companies demand this because they recognize people will make mistakes and accidents are expensive.

When I attended Gunsite, we started practice of the draw slowly and increased speed only after everything was mastered. During the draw, the thumb safety(TS) does not come off until the sights are coming up on target. Thus the TS provides and extra layer of safety in addition to finger control. Nothing is lost using a TS, if the operator is properly trained, motor memory will make it reliable with time and practice.

IMO a TS on a striker weapon will work just as well as it does on a 1911. There is a notion which is quite prevalent which states that it is wrong to have a TS on a striker gun. I think that Glock did such a good job in selling their pistol that it became ingrained that strikers should never have a TS. Manufactures are now changing and offering, I think it is a good idea.

I have seen this beat to death on this site and several other's.
I personally (and it is a personal thing) have safeties on all but one of my M&P's. I train with them and on my Bodyguard and Shield's I pocket carry without a holster. For my FS M&P's I do not want to feel for them in the dark on the night stand without the safety. Plus I would not want to be startled by my Wife and or Children including Grandchildren in the dark and not have a safety to swipe before I new who it was. I would rather be shot instead, I will give that less than second up to swipe the safety.

Same here. I had a Taurus PT145 Millennium I wanted to get rid of - I never carried it (too heavy and bulky) and I didn't want to mess with the Taurus recall. They gave me a good deal, but the TS was all they had. My other two CCWs are Kel-Tecs - no safety on either - so I just leave it off. No big deal.

I bought the no thumb safety shield 45, no problems yet, its a personal preference, no right or wrong in my opinion, keep a level head and train a lot with whatever piece that you buy!

For what it's worth, if I was buying one... and I am considering one.

It would not have a safety.

A recent example of someone who could have benefited from a safety:

"MECOSTA COUNTY, MI -- A 23-year-old woman accidentally shot herself in the hip while holstering a handgun in a Walmart parking lot in Big Rapids."

Woman accidentally shoots self while holstering gun in Walmart parking lot | MLive.com

Mine has a thumb safety and now that I am used to switching off the safety between rounds at the range, it is a part of my shooting regiment.

When your gun has a safety you always have the option of switching it off and ignoring it....you have no option if you have no safety. I ve grown to like having a safety particularly when holstering and unholstering.

I didn't care for the thumb safeties on the full size and compact M&Ps that I had because they were an extended lever that felt mushy. The thumb safeties on the Shields are flat and have a very definite action.

When my LGS finally got a Shield .45 in stock, it had a thumb safety. After checking the action, I bought it. I'm glad I did, because it has a very positive and firm click on and off, and I have no concerns about engaging or disengaging it accidentally. I will train to disengage it, and I will use it. While I've owned a lot of semi-autos in the past, some with and some without a thumb safety, for a while now my only handgun has been a SD9VE...which doesn't have a safety but does have a heavier trigger. With the trigger pull on the Shield .45 (which is very, very nice IMO) I'm glad to have a thumb safety.

No safety. Gun would be worthless to me with a safety.

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Incompetent individual here.

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