I have had many guns in my life time never ran into the problems that I have had with bodyguard 380. my girlfriend purchased a bodyguard 380, I went to the range with her like the feel and performance so much I purchased one my self. Both guns from the same gun store, we could not get the safety to work with out using a lot of force to turn on and off. With her she could not even operate it at all. the clip on mine you had to force it to go in. I will say that i have never owned a S & W so is this the norm for this pistol or norm for S & W.. We both had to ship them back to be repaired. I do not want to get into using a safety or not. this to me is like buying a car the radio doesn't work and they tell you to use your phone.

The problems you experienced seem common for these things.

Some folks work around them by not using the safety and depressing the mag release when inserting a magazine.

sound like this is a norm for S & W. I will not buy another gun from them if I cannot expect that it come from the factory as it was design to work. I know thing at time come from the factory with problems, but it seem this is way out of line .

again this to me is like buying a car the radio doesn't work and they tell you to use your phone. i know you would not except that.

I have had mine for about 5 years, it's my EDC. Did you notice anything amiss when you field stripped it for cleaning? Did you put a small drop of oil on the area and try to work it in?

yes i cleaned and added rem oil. it helped but not by much