That looks like a Glock, and Glocks don’t have a manual safety. A lot of modern pistols don’t have them anymore. Not that having one would have helped this guy. With gun handling this reckless it was only a matter of time before something bad happened.
Just curious, which part of it looked like a Glock? You don’t seem unfamiliar with them so I’m sure you’re not just going by the brand from TV. I can’t see it at all, but I am genuinely wondering (enough to ask)
I do actually know the difference between a Glock and a S&W. The video I saw was light on pixels, and the way it was edited the gun was in motion for most of it. I could tell it was a striker-fired pistol, but it was hard to make out exactly which one, and I’m at work and didn’t want to Google up a higher quality video of a guy shooting himself in the head. It looked enough like a Glock, and it’s usually a Glock in these types of videos so I just kind of guessed. Apparently I got it wrong.
I’d never had a gun before I joined the army After I got out I was shocked to learn gun without a safety were a thing. Still just seems insane to me even though I get why they don’t.
The idea is that a gun that’s being carried for self-defense is meant to be used in a flash under stress. In that event, the manual safety is forgotten very, very often. If you pull a concealed pistol on an assailant and forget about the safety, all you’ve done is handed your attacker a free gun.
And accidents with carry guns due to a lack of manual safety are very rare. They tend to have longer trigger pulls or are double-action, and the real safety is the holster, which should not only protect the trigge guard, but encourage safe finger placement on draw. Some even have a release button that requires you to put your trigger finger in a safe draw position outside of the trigger guard in order to draw.
In some cases, the safety is built into the trigger or the grip or both. With a grip safety, if you grip the gun properly, the safety turns off. Likewise a trigger may be split, with one piece further forward than the rest. You have to pull the trigger properly to disengage the safety as you shoot it.
In this case you have to pull the trigger properly while also gripping the gun properly. No manual safety, but it still won’t fire if you drop it or a pen works it’s way into the trigger guard in a purse or something.
Not necessarily. With most newer pistols being designed to be drop safe, modern hard-sided Kydex retention holsters have taken over most of the function that you used to need a manual safety for.
Safeties aren’t there to prevent the person holding the gun from pulling the trigger, and they’re not meant to compensate for unsafe handling of the gun. They’re mostly there to keep the gun from firing while you’re carrying it, or if it gets dropped. Imagine a soldier walking through some dense brush, or hitting the ground while diving for cover with a pistol in a leather or nylon holster on their hip. If you bump into the wrong stray branch, or land on the wrong rock, it could poke the holster hard enough to pull the trigger through the side of the holster. So you need something that physically prevents the trigger from being pulled.
Glocks, and other brands of similarly designed pistols have several internal safeties that make it drop-safe, and which block the firing pin from moving forward unless the trigger is pulled all the way. It’s next to impossible for a Glock to go off unless the trigger is pulled. Then with a modern hard-sided retention holster protecting the trigger, you can carry with a round in the chamber and not have to worry about the gun going off. It makes a traditional manual safety a little redundant, and some companies just don’t bother with it anymore. On a lot of hammer-fired pistols it’s been replaced by a de-cocker.
The thing manual safeties are still nice to have for is re-holstering your gun while the holster is on your body. You don’t have to worry about loose clothing getting caught in the trigger guard as much. You should still be careful doing it, but it’s nice to have that extra layer of safety. But then, if you’re walking around with a gun it really should never come out of its holster except for a life-or-death situation.
Because gun manufacturers are fucking morons that think ease of use for anyone and everyone is an appealing priority over safety protocols on the weapon that can, as we have seen, very easily kill you. If you can’t train to take the safety off when you need it, if you can’t spare the tenth of a second it takes to turn it off, you probably shouldn’t be using a gun.
When I purchased my handgun, so many people asked “why are you getting the model with the safety? That’s one more thing you gotta worry about in a dangerous situation.”
I firmly believe that if I can’t be disciplined enough to flip a switch before potentially ending someone’s life, I’m not responsible enough to carry a firearm.
That, and the idea of carrying a pistol with no safety and a bullet racked terrifies me since my holster aims right at my dick haha
That looks like a Glock, and Glocks don’t have a manual safety. A lot of modern pistols don’t have them anymore. Not that having one would have helped this guy. With gun handling this reckless it was only a matter of time before something bad happened.
Just curious, which part of it looked like a Glock? You don’t seem unfamiliar with them so I’m sure you’re not just going by the brand from TV. I can’t see it at all, but I am genuinely wondering (enough to ask)
I do actually know the difference between a Glock and a S&W. The video I saw was light on pixels, and the way it was edited the gun was in motion for most of it. I could tell it was a striker-fired pistol, but it was hard to make out exactly which one, and I’m at work and didn’t want to Google up a higher quality video of a guy shooting himself in the head. It looked enough like a Glock, and it’s usually a Glock in these types of videos so I just kind of guessed. Apparently I got it wrong.
That’s a Smith and Wesson M&P. They have models of it with and without manual safeties.
I’d never had a gun before I joined the army After I got out I was shocked to learn gun without a safety were a thing. Still just seems insane to me even though I get why they don’t.
The idea is that a gun that’s being carried for self-defense is meant to be used in a flash under stress. In that event, the manual safety is forgotten very, very often. If you pull a concealed pistol on an assailant and forget about the safety, all you’ve done is handed your attacker a free gun.
And accidents with carry guns due to a lack of manual safety are very rare. They tend to have longer trigger pulls or are double-action, and the real safety is the holster, which should not only protect the trigge guard, but encourage safe finger placement on draw. Some even have a release button that requires you to put your trigger finger in a safe draw position outside of the trigger guard in order to draw.
How does it work without a manual safety? Just don’t rack it until you are ready to shoot?
Automatic safeties are a thing and pretty common.
In some cases, the safety is built into the trigger or the grip or both. With a grip safety, if you grip the gun properly, the safety turns off. Likewise a trigger may be split, with one piece further forward than the rest. You have to pull the trigger properly to disengage the safety as you shoot it.
In this case you have to pull the trigger properly while also gripping the gun properly. No manual safety, but it still won’t fire if you drop it or a pen works it’s way into the trigger guard in a purse or something.
Not necessarily. With most newer pistols being designed to be drop safe, modern hard-sided Kydex retention holsters have taken over most of the function that you used to need a manual safety for.
Safeties aren’t there to prevent the person holding the gun from pulling the trigger, and they’re not meant to compensate for unsafe handling of the gun. They’re mostly there to keep the gun from firing while you’re carrying it, or if it gets dropped. Imagine a soldier walking through some dense brush, or hitting the ground while diving for cover with a pistol in a leather or nylon holster on their hip. If you bump into the wrong stray branch, or land on the wrong rock, it could poke the holster hard enough to pull the trigger through the side of the holster. So you need something that physically prevents the trigger from being pulled.
Glocks, and other brands of similarly designed pistols have several internal safeties that make it drop-safe, and which block the firing pin from moving forward unless the trigger is pulled all the way. It’s next to impossible for a Glock to go off unless the trigger is pulled. Then with a modern hard-sided retention holster protecting the trigger, you can carry with a round in the chamber and not have to worry about the gun going off. It makes a traditional manual safety a little redundant, and some companies just don’t bother with it anymore. On a lot of hammer-fired pistols it’s been replaced by a de-cocker.
The thing manual safeties are still nice to have for is re-holstering your gun while the holster is on your body. You don’t have to worry about loose clothing getting caught in the trigger guard as much. You should still be careful doing it, but it’s nice to have that extra layer of safety. But then, if you’re walking around with a gun it really should never come out of its holster except for a life-or-death situation.
Because gun manufacturers are fucking morons that think ease of use for anyone and everyone is an appealing priority over safety protocols on the weapon that can, as we have seen, very easily kill you. If you can’t train to take the safety off when you need it, if you can’t spare the tenth of a second it takes to turn it off, you probably shouldn’t be using a gun.
When I purchased my handgun, so many people asked “why are you getting the model with the safety? That’s one more thing you gotta worry about in a dangerous situation.”
I firmly believe that if I can’t be disciplined enough to flip a switch before potentially ending someone’s life, I’m not responsible enough to carry a firearm.
That, and the idea of carrying a pistol with no safety and a bullet racked terrifies me since my holster aims right at my dick haha