My holster is MY safety.
I think I have read each and every post in this thread. The argument about safeties, hammers and triggers all have their merits. All designs are not only to help us be safe but also (and maybe primarily) to keep manufacturers from being sued. After all, the intent for them to make them and the reason we buy them is to shoot them, right?
I believe our best safety takes place upstream before any of these come into play.
I believe your holster is your best safety devise of all both in the moment and after the fact.
What are the odds of shooting a gun while it is in the holster?
As soon as a weapon is drawn, the user is at risk regardless of safeties or lack of. Once we have access to the trigger, risk accelerates and regardless of equipment the burden boils down to the user and his/her decisions and actions that follow.
I believe the best safety is your holster.
Legally, an accidental discharge or a righteous shooting will be costly. So long as it is in the holster, there is no threat of legal action costing you time, money, potiential loss of income or jail time. Even brandishing your weapon gets you jail time but only if you take it out of the holster.
The endless arguing about whether one is in the chamber or whether a manual safety all takes place after the gun is removed from a holster (or should). For that reason, my mindset is to NEVER remove it from the holster without the belief it is ready to fire. If I draw it, I am either making it safe or making ready but always I am believing it is dangerous. My holster is MY safety.
The NRA's first rule of safety is to always point it in a safe direction. The assumption here is that it is in your hand. The rule is to make us practice, use and assume the gun is loaded.
Following in that same vein of thought, I believe that the mindset for me is to believe that when it is drawn it is ready to fire. I have no desire to check safeties, hammers. Using other safety features gives me a false sense of security.
All that said, i own varing types both with and without. I humbly think that having varying types can be a detrament. Rote repetition is our best training device. But no matter how trained or how much we practice, a crisis brings out the worst in all of us.
My mindset is that when I draw it, it is hot. I believe it and I set mine up that way. It is not infallible-it is the best I know for me to do.
The greatest problem with this is reholstering after we relaxed and the danger, of course, is having your finger or clothing catch on the trigger.
I have the mindset to think before I move, remove my finger from within the guard and watch the gun as I move it back into the holster.
Lastly, redundacy is today's preferred safety slogan. It is necessary and works for the masses when many use the same equipment where some have different levels of training or experience. Right or wrong, I discount this as this is just me and just my gun. In this case, I am only responsible for me, not 59 others who borrow it. If I rented one or sold one, I would feel differenlty about this.
It's not perfect but if something worked perfectly, we wouldn't need a discussion nor have a debate. In spite of varying opinions, there are millions of guns out there and many days go by without incident by those you are good citizens. Say that about cars, motorcycles etc. (I have 2 motorcycles BTW)
I have just bought another without a manual safety, if this is my last post...maybe I was wrong. :0)
