woodmnctry reply

The following are a few reasons to remove the safety:

1. You pull the gun to defend yourself. Somehow the magazine dropped out 1/4 inch and you were unaware of this. When you pull the trigger, no bang, as the mag safety will not allow the gun to fire.

2. Your in a "gunfight" and you've fired many rounds and lost count. You know you have one or more left, as the slide has not locked open. You decide to change the mag. Just as you drop the mag another "bad guy" comes around the end of the car, you are crouching behind.

You yell "wait a second, I need to get this magazine in". The bad guy says "take your time, I can wait".

The magazine safety prevents the gun from firing without a magazine inserted. Removing the magazine safety allows the gun to be fired with or without the magazine inserted. The example above would have allowed you to have fired at the bag guy, without the mag in the gun. You get one shot off, install the mag, rack it back and your good to go.



I've heard reasons for having the safety:

1. If a child gets hold of the gun, you left lying around, it will not fire without the mag. Are you going to leave a loaded gun lying around (with or without the mag inserted)? Are you going to leave any gun lying around where someone can get hold of it?

2. If you get into a struggle for the gun, all you have to do is drop the magazine and the gun will not fire. If your in a struggle for your gun, are you going to be in any position to be able to hit the mag eject button? I know it does happen, but unless you are wrestling with the person, before drawing your weapon, why would you allow this person to get close enough to grab your gun?

I own a Ruger LC9. It came with both a mag safety and a manual safety. On that gun if you pull the trigger without a mag inserted, the trigger does not move. The problem is you now have to figure out is the manual safety still on (trigger does not move), or did the magazine drop out a little (trigger does not move). This is the worst scenario, as there might be two reasons the trigger did not move. Do you have time to figure it out?


These are reasons I always remove the magazine safety.


I own a Shield 40 which does not come with a mag safety, but it does come with a manual safety. I use pocket carry and I always carry with the safety on. There are lots of people that do not like a manual safety. Their reasoning is they always carry with the safety off, but they worry somehow the safety might get accidentally "bumped" on. They need to use the gun in a SD situation and when they pull the trigger, not knowing the safety got bumped on, the gun does not fire. That is why they want the manual safety removed, to eliminate a problem that could occur, the accidental engagement of the safety.

Not everyone feels the same. Some will never modify a gun while others never stop trying to make their gun better (for them). This is true for these two gun safeties, some feel they are there for a reason and others remove them to eliminate any "accidental" issues. It is always a matter of personal preference.


Bob