Quote:
Originally posted by Fastbolt:
The SW99 line can be a little confusing.
Anyway, S&W later started to produce a model they called the SW990L.
Anyway, it was essentially a QA-type pistol but with a 990 DAO slide, meaning no decocker button. This S&W model differed from the Walther P99 QA model in the respect that the Walther had a reduced size decocker button on the slide and their pistol could be decocked without having to pull the trigger. The SW990L had to be decocked like the Sigma, meaning that the trigger had to be pulled on an empty chamber in order to field strip the pistol.
I never got a definitive answer from the various folks who I asked about why this was done, but a common opinion was that it made it possible to treat the SW990L (and SW990) like the Sigma when it came to field stripping. Consistency in manipulation across a couple of their model lines, so to speak. Maybe so.
|
The actual reason was that S&W feared that some ill-trained cop would press the button and decock his 990L (QA) pistol in the holster leaving it not capable of firing just when the officer needed the pistol in a gun fight.
In light of some of the recent posts on here about officer issues with firearms and malfunctions, and knowing that most cops are not "gun people" and all have rather limited or lackluster training compared to the hobbyist, I think S&W was correct in putting the 990 slide without the decocking button on the slide of the QA or L pistol. If the QA pistol is decocked, the slide must be retracted a little to re-cock the pistol and this is just too dangerous for the men and women in blue or brown, as the case may be, apparently.