WTK: M&P Thumb safety and striker mechanism - how do they interact

[Flame Red]

Folks,

I am wondering if anyone understands how the thumb safety on the M&P interacts with the striker fire mechanism. I can see that it seems to block the trigger from tripping the striker, but I was wondering if there was more to it than I could see. In particular, does the safety someone block the striker also in some manner? Sort of like how the thumb safety on a 1911 engages the hammer?

Wish there was a "translucent" motion video of how the M&P system works like I have seen for the 1911. Anyone know of one?

Thanks in advance.

Just curious.

 

[OKFC05]

The M&P has a striker block, much like the Glock. In all, there are three safeties without the external thumb safety. All three are disengaged by pulling the trigger. Unless the trigger is pulled, it will not fire.

The added external thumb safety blocks the trigger from firing the gun.

Aside from totally disabling the gun so it could never fire, I'm not sure what more is possible.

 

[Fastbolt]

Here are a couple of images taken looking down into a M&P 45 frame equipped with external thumb safety levers.

In the first one you see the safety in the ON position. Looking at the right side lever you can see an angled arm of the lever, located inside the frame, blocking the angled arm of the trigger bar from moving rearward.

In this image you see the thumb safety in the OFF position, with the trigger able to be fully pulled and trigger bar having moved rearward, over the lever's arm. In this condition the trigger bar could now reach and engage the sear, releasing the striker, if the slide were installed and the pistol fully assembled.

One of the interesting characteristics of the M&P thumb safety is that it only blocks the trigger bar from moving and the slide can be carefully retracted to empty the chamber with the safety in the ON position, if desired.

The trigger safety, striker safety plunger, out-of-battery disconnect feature and optional magazine safety (if a gun is so equipped) are separate from the manual thumb safety option.

 

[Flame Red]

Thank you both for your replies.