Here is a thread that's better off dead.
Reading many of the responses in the 2013 portions of the thread, my hope is that the posters in favor of Mexican carry then have wised up over the last couple years - without actually shooting themselves or having their firearm go clattering on the ground.
It's worth having some discussion of the role a holster plays, particularly in IWB carry and how to use one safely.
A well designed holster provides your first line of safety by protecting the trigger from any intruding object. Some however do it better than others and it's worth knowing the things to spot that can make a difference in how you use the holster.
I'll start with the Versacarry, which isn't a holster at all but seems to be regarded as one, and is regarded as an alternative to Mexican carry. They sent me one to evaluate when it was just coming on the market. This is the original model, not the redesigned model with the trigger guard on one side:
I gave it a try and then sent them a long list of faults, cautions and suggested improvements. To give credit where credit is due, they did redesign it to include a semicircular trigger guard that protects belt side of the firearm, however the trigger is still exposed on the inside. Again to give credit where credit is due, they also have a safety warning page with 17 safety warnings. Warning numbers 1, 6, 7 and 8 pretty much cover the major limitations of this system specific to concealed carry:
1. Do not use this product with any firearm in a cocked and locked condition, or with a live round chambered.
6. Never place your hand or any other body part in front of the muzzle while inserting the Versacarry®.
7. The trigger guard must be used at all times to ensure proper safety and product functionality.
8. Never attempt to re-insert the Versacarry® into your weapon while the Versacarry® is still attached inside the waistline.
This does underscore one of the safety issues with many IWB holsters - you cannot safely insert a handgun into them while they are in your waistband unless some very strict design parameters are met.
Let consider this style of IWB holster.
The good news is that once the pistol or revolver is inside the holster, the trigger is fully protected. This style of holster is designed so that the pistol or revolver is placed in the holster, and the holster and firearm is then placed in the waistband as a single unit, ensuring the trigger is fully protected in the process.
Whether it is made from whole leather, split leather, or nylon or some other soft material, it will collapse when the pistol or revolver is drawn making it very difficult or impossible to re-holster the firearm while the holster is still inside the waistband. That's why it has a clip on it to facilitate easy removal:
If you try to re-holster your firearm with the holster still inside the waistband you run this risk of the top edge of the mouth curling over and entering the trigger guard, where it can obstruct the trigger and cause an AD as the pistol or revolver is pushed into the holster.
This type of tuckable IWB holster has the same fault as a wad of shirt, belt loop, etc can force the single thickness lip of the holster inside the trigger guard. In this case the leather is much stiffer, but that just means that once it enters the trigger and hangs up on the serrated trigger, it just provides a more efficient means to press the trigger as the pistol enters the holster:
This design flaw is bad enough with a DA revolver or with a DA pistol like a PP series pistol where the DA pull is around 12 pounds, but it becomes a very serious risk when it is combined with a striker fired pistol where the trigger pull is in the 4-5 pound range and where no manual safety is used.
In this regard, Mexican carry, a Versacarry or re-holstering into a single thickness mouth holster is an incredibly bad idea with a pistol like a Glock where the trigger pull is in the single digits and all the safety devices are deactivated by the trigger.
This doesn't make a holster with a single thickness mouth unsafe, but it means you have to understand its limitations, relying on the clip to easily remove the holster from your waistband before re-holstering your pistol or revolver. That by necessity makes it a two handed operation, and if that's not an option, choose a better design.
A well designed holster will have two thicknesses of leather at the mouth that sandwich a metal or polymer strip that holds the holster open inside the waist band when the holster is removed. This feature also prevents the edge of the holster from rolling inward and entering the trigger guard. Most also have a nice long radius with no sharp corners, making it even harder for a piece of the holster to enter the trigger guard. Even though this holster has seen years of use, the mouth is still quite rigid. In this case, it also still uses a clip, which also gives you the option to easily remove the holster to re-holster the firearm:
If you are using a holster with belt loops, which are a little slower to thread back under the belt, you want to ensure the mouth of the holster uses two thicknesses of heavy leather as well as a steel or polymer insert to hold it open. And once again you want a mouth with a nice long radius and no pointed areas that could be rolled over:
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I'll mention OWB holsters briefly as some of the same considerations apply. Many of them have single thickness mouths and some of the same considerations apply, although it is less critical as with the belt on the inside of the holster, they tend to stay open when the pistol is removed even without a stiffener and an extra layer of leather.
This one works, but illustrates something you want to watch for:
It has a near 90 degree bend in the top end of the holster, and if it were any farther aft it could have posed a risk of entering the trigger guard:
I'll also take the position that a thumb snap isn't always required to ensure security when running, jumping, bending over, etc, particularly with semi-auto pistols. Semi-autos are for the most part pretty flat sided have much more constant contact with the holster along the length of the firearm. Most leather OWB holsters are built with some curve to them and that curve, when combined with a snug belt securing both ends, keeps enough tension to hold the pistol securely. Some also use a tension screw to control the amount of tension. In some cases the strap holding the thumb snap also poses a risk of entering the trigger guard, so it's a mixed blessing, and you need to develop the habit of ensuring your trigger finger is extended in a manner that deflect the strap away from the trigger guard as you re-holster the pistol. I have a couple of thumb snap less OWB holsters that do a great job of retaining even large frame semi-automatics, and I'm about 50/50 on the presence of thumb snaps on my OWB holsters.
Revolvers on the other hand pose more challenges as they are wide in the cylinder and thin everywhere else, making them more difficult to retain with tension in the holster alone. I use a thumb snap or a hammer loop on all but one of my OWB revolver holsters.
There are some holster designs using a retention button that is pressed by the trigger finger to release the firearm. I don't recommend them. A shooter who may have developed the very good habit of having the trigger finger rest along the frame or slide above the trigger guard will modify this to first press the release button and then position along the slide. Under extreme stress, some shooters seem to never get past the "press" phase and end up continuing to press even after the firearm is out of the holster, ending up with the finger pressing the trigger as the firearm comes out of the holster sending a round into the ground right in front of them - or worse.
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I'll also mention the advantages of having a firearm with a hammer when it comes to re-holstering. With a decocked DA revolver or DA pistol, you can place your thumb over the back of the hammer and feel the hammer coming back if something is obstructing the trigger as you push the firearm into the holster.
This adds one more layer of safety, and the conscious shift in grip will help prevent you from leaving your finger inside the trigger guard as you re-holster the weapon - something that has happened to numerous police officers after using their weapon in a real world shoot.
With a hammerless revolver or a striker fired semi-auto pistol, you do not have this luxury, and with a design like the Glock, where there is no hammer and all the safeties are tied to the trigger, you have to take extreme care to ensure the trigger is unobstructed when holstering the pistol.
It's challenging enough in an OWB duty holster, but the risk increase significantly with IWB concealed carry, so you'll want to choose your method of carry and your holster very carefully, and then use the holster to maximize safety - ideally using a holster with a clip, removing the holster from your waistband, inserting the pistol in the holster out where you can see everything clearly, and then putting both into your waistband as a single unit.
Obviously, Mexican carry with a Glock is about as far away from a safe practice as you can get.
