FOREFRONT: No Glocks For Cops? An Alternative View
weapon is brought to target, with the popular mantra of “On Target, Off Safe; Off Target, On Safe” being the rule. Aggravating the situation, many of the guns
equipped with these kinds of safeties have Single Action (SA) triggers with even lighter pull weights and shorter trigger travel than the striker-fi red guns that Mr. Owens has de- clared as unsuitable for law enforcement use, making them even easier to fi re inadvertently. An important hazard of guns equipped with these types of mechanical safeties is that they require a large number of repeti- tions in training to instill the habit of prop- erly releasing them, and they can be fumbled or forgotten under stress, such as when the user is suddenly threatened with close-range violence. As a fi rearms instructor and life- long shooter, I’ve personally witnessed many examples of highly trained and profi cient shooters (including competitive champi- ons) fumbling or forgetting to disengage their safeties under the stress of competi- tion, training or qualifi cation—conditions that produce much less stress than a violent ambush, and much less of the physiological eff ects that can be so detrimental to motor skills performance. Given that the vast ma- jority of law enforcement offi cers are neither as well trained nor as profi cient as these skilled enthusiasts, it’s likely that they would be even more susceptible to making these kinds of life-endangering mistakes under the stress of a deadly attack. We’ve seen incidents like this in the past, both in the real world and in dynamic, Force on Force training, so the possibility cannot be ignored. Lastly, an additional problem with these safeties is that the aforementioned offi cers with small hands may have diffi culty even reaching the safety levers to disengage them. T is is especially true for pistols equipped with slide-mounted safety levers, which re- quire a long reach to throw them upward to the “OFF” position. Oftentimes, reaching these safeties requires a small-handed user to sacrifi ce a proper fi ring grip on the pis- tol, leading to dangerous delays in fi ring or control and accuracy diffi culties when the pistol is fi red. In the most extreme cases, a small-handed user may be completely inca- pable of operating these levers with the fi r-
11 The Police Marksman Summer 2015
The DA/SA autos typically have a long trigger reach in the DA mode, making it diffi cult for those with smaller hands to get the right purchase on them. In the worst cases, shooters with small hands may not be able to pull the heavy, 12- to 14-pound trigger in DA mode.
The transition from DA to SA trigger modes requires dedicated practice to master. This takes valuable training time, which is always in short supply. Striker-fi red guns, with their single trigger mode, are easier and faster to learn.
ing hand at all, and may be required to use the support side hand to disengage the lever (assuming it is available, and not wounded/ damaged or otherwise occupied in fi ghting an opponent at close quarters). Since some offi cers may fumble or forget the safety lever under duress, and others may not be able to properly reach it and deactivate it, many law enforcement agencies and some
branches of the U.S. military have adopted protocols, which mandate that such pistols are to be carried “OFF SAFE” in the holster while on duty. Such a practice is an inadequate so- lution to the problem, and only creates an additional hazard when an offi cer who is not habituated to disengaging the safety as part of the draw retrieves a weapon whose lever has been accidentally bumped to the “ON
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