Dunno. It's a small stamped steel part. Things happen in the world.
If you think that's weird, they asked me to look at a G22 that had the rear of the slide stop lever broken off. Never saw that before. Never expected to see it, either. No damage to the plastic frame around the lever indicating an obvious impact, either. The owner wasn't present to explain anything, having just dropped the weapon off with one of the other armorers.
Now I've seen it, even if I never see it again.
I told the other armorer to replace the part, examine the gun for normal function and go on down the road.
Add it to the constantly growing "Never saw THAT before" list of gun problems that crop up with all sorts of guns.
Ever installed a M&P slide stop lever assembly? Aligning the slide stop & trigger bar assemblies, while making sure the trigger pin captures the trigger bar spring, can require some attention. Helps to hold your mouth just right. The use of an assembly pin (what we used to call a slave pin) can be helpful. The M&P armorer kit includes the pin that was originally used in the Sigma Series armorer class. I believe they presently call it the Sigma Assembly Pin and include it in their Polymer Tool Kit for armorers (for Sigma, SW99 and the M&P lines). A long & thin pin punch can serve the same role, too, guiding capture of the trigger spring from the right side while the trigger pin is installed from the left to right, although using the assembly pin and pushing it out with the trigger pin (from the left) makes it easier to push in the trigger pin at the same time.
