I wrote a long answer to this question recently. Let's see if I can find it.
Found it - instead of repeating it here I will refer you to this thread; my reply is number 10 I believe:
http://smith-wessonforum.com/concea...zens-legal-defense-network.html#post138191282
Massad Ayoob does tell that story but as I recall he also tells a story about a defendant who owned a Colt Cobra and the prosecutor kept emphasizing COBRA, until the defense destroyed the foolishness by getting testimony that the gun was named by Colt and was not used in the incident being prosecuted.
You can attack evidence or you can attack the witness/defendant but if the testimony and evidence support the fact that the defendant was in fear for his life he will be no-billed/dismissed/found not guilty. It will cost thousands of dollars to get there but that will be the result barring extraneous evidence that tends to militate against self defense.
If you need a lighter trigger then get a lighter trigger. If it makes you a better shooter so be it. If you need better sights then get better sights. If it makes you a better shooter so be it
Let me tell you what you do NOT need.
You do NOT need to use handloads for self defense. It's risky from the sense of performance against the virtual infallibility or factory ammunition and it does give a prosecutor the ability to ask questions that otherwise make no sense. You want to be able to justify commercial hollow point cartridges because of their effectiveness in stopping an attack and that they'll fail to penetrate and go as far as FMJ ammunition after passing through someone. You don't want to have to justify your home made "killer ammunition". For hunting, whatever, I don't care. For any kind of competition, whatever, I don't care. Don't give "ammunition" to a prosecutor by loading your defense weapons with home made cartridges. That's just asking for a withering cross examination.
You do NOT need to disable a mandated safety device. However, mandated is such a bad word - mandated by whom? If a safety device like a magazine disconnect is
mandated by law (maybe there is such a law but I never heard of it) then you're starting off your self defense story on the wrong foot because you're already a criminal, you violated the law. But if it's a safety device that a manufacturer put into a pistol then disabling it has a much different effect.
You have to consider the possibility that the safety device being removed might be far more detrimental to your life than leaving it in. Do you really expect to be in a confrontation where you're going to drop your magazine out of your pistol and that one last shot is going to save you? That happens in books and movies. If you're that disturbed by a magazine disconnect then buy a self defense pistol that doesn't have one. It's that simple.
Disabling a magazine disconnect is far more likely to lead to an accidental discharge than saving your life.
Disabling the internal lock on a S&W revolver is different. I don't do it but that's not a safety device with respect to shooting, that's a safety device with respect to storage.
I reiterate what I said in the other thread - a "righteous shoot" to use an LEO term, is just that, a righteous shoot, and worrying about triggers and sights and ammunition is simply not your biggest problem. Justifiable homicide sends you home - keep it justifiable and your triggers and sights and stocks (we all play with stocks!!) won't matter.
***GRJ***
