Is it a technically verifiable fact that disabling the grip safety on an EZ 380 PC will increase the risk of the gun firing if dropped?

In other words, is the grip safety essential to increase an EZ 380 PC's "drop safe status"?

This is not a legality, risk question.

It's a mechanical/design question for those who can verify/document an answer.

thnx

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Professional Trainer

I don't have an EZ but if you look at a schematic and see what happens when the safety is and isn’t depressed will likely show you if you could deactivate it successfully where it would still fire. Better idea is to just trade it off for a Shield.

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S&W factory revolver armorer

Thanks, but that didn't answer the question that I went out of my way to be clear about.

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Professional Trainer

I don't think very many people are qualified to answer your question in the manner in which you put it because no personal user/owner has taken the time to perform the drop tests needed to verify any theory. However, it is apparent just by handling the weapon that if you don't have the grip safety pressed in you cannot move the trigger to the rear, and if it is pressed in you can move the trigger to the rear.

Therefore, if you disable the grip safety (by using a rubber band or wrap of electrical tape, for example) whatever action you perform with the pistol that causes the trigger to move to the rear can possibly fire the gun.

The grip safety performs the same function as the jointed trigger on striker-fired pistols. Frankly I don't think S&W would go through all the design and production issues to put the grip safety in place for drop-firing prevention if it wasn't intended to work.

YES.

Depressing the grip safety raises a bar in the left side of the frame that lifts the firing pin safety so that the firing pin is not blocked from forward movement.

Disabling the grip safety by tying or pining it down would be tantamount to removing the firing pin safety, which would obviously increase the gun's risk of firing if dropped. However, it would be a bit more complex, because the bar that the grip safety moves must be able to drop down (grip safety not depressed) for the slide to be removed or reinstalled (see page from manual below).

If the bar that is raised by the grip safety was removed, the condition of the grip safety would become irrelevant, but then there would be nothing to lift the firing pin safety. Thus, the firing pin safety would also have to be removed to be able to fire the gun. And removing the firing pin safety would be an obvious no-no.

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Thanks, that's the kind of answer I was looking for.

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Professional Trainer

My answer was to suggest a direction for you to look to consider the answer to your question, rather then give you an engineering answer.

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S&W factory revolver armorer