I had a custom manual safety put on my Glock 19. Without a manual safety if you snag the trigger it will fire. It happens when you carry them or attempt to holster them, or if you are in the process of trying to load or unload the Glock without being extra careful. That is a headache and a real danger I will not put up with.
What people do not understand is that the Glock trigger safety was "not" designed to keep the gun from going off if you accidentally snag the trigger (and it doesn't) rather it was designed to keep the gun from firing if it was dropped and the passive firing pin safety failed. Glock has had numerous recalls way, way, to numerous to go into here, suffice to say Glock called them "upgrades" gambling that the average Glock owner would be too dumb to know that the term is synonymous with recall. For the most part Glock was right.
The other glaring design disaster of the Glock is that it has a totally unsafe takedown procedure. The slide must be forward and you must pull the trigger before removing the slide, that is an accident waiting to happen and happen it does all the time when people forget to check the chamber before attempting a take down of the pistol.
Now contrast this to more safely designed pistols that require the slide to be locked back and open before takedown. A forgotten round in the chamber would be ejected out when the slide was pulled back.
Glocks have very weak striker energy (they flunked a German police test trial so the Germans just modified the requirements to get them to pass).
If you do not believe any of this take an empty cartridge case and seat a high primer (no gun powder, no bullet). Put it in the chamber and gently press the slide home. Now attempt to fire off the primer. It will not fire. Try this same test with a hammer fired gun or even a 1900's era striker fired gun and they both will fire the primer.
If the open striker channel (another design defect) is not kept squeaky clean or is over lubed you run the risk of a misfire, especially in handloads that may have a high primer not fully seated. To make it even worse the bottom of the glock grip has a gaping large hole in it which is an open highway to the underside of the slide and striker channel and dust and other contaminants can easily find their way into the striker channel.
Glock chambers were purposely made oversize to aid in feeding reliability but this results in lousy accuracy and the rear of the cartridge is not fully supported making a blow out of the cartridge case far more likely than with other designs. It's a major reason Glock warns not to use handloads in their firearms.
Glock trigger pulls are generally creepy which again is not an aid in accurate shooting.
Glock plasticky sights wear down with numerous holster presentations and of course snap off easily when the gun is dropped.
In conclusion be honest and ask yourself this question: "Would you carry a loaded revolver with the hammer cocked back even in a holster let alone just stuck in your waistband"? Any sane person would answer, "Heck no, do you think I am nuts!" Well then do you think carrying a Glock with a round in the chamber is any different as far as an accidental discharge. The honest answer is no, there is no difference because both weapons will fire with the light snag of the trigger which fires them off instantaneously, you get no second chance.
There is an old axiom dating back thousands of years and it is "What people cannot see, they do not fear" that is why they think a Glock is safe to carry with a round in the chamber (they cannot see the cocked back striker). Herr Glock originally was going to put a hammer on his new pistol but was told that no one in their right mind would buy it and they were right no one would have.
If you have a stock factory Glock carry it with the chamber empty otherwise get a manual safety installed if you want to carry it with the chamber loaded. I might add that the manual safety can be left in the "on" position when loading or unloading the Glock, which again will also prevent those other types of accidental discharges as well.
And the most laughable axiom is "The best safety is between your ears" the graveyards and/or wheelchairs are full of such people, its called "being a victim of Darwinism".
athlonoutdoors.com
