From: Thomas Barclay <Thomas.Barclay@s...>
Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2002 13:46:29 -0500
Subject: [Semi-OT] Blackhawk Down
Diplomacy Incarnate said: Oh, and as far as "Chickenshit", anyone who's actually held a loaded weapon can tell you that having your safety on at all times is a way of preventing death and serious injury. As a matter of fact, not haivng his safety on was the reason a kid from the Service Battery of our supporting artillery BN in Kosovo put a 5.56mm round through the chest of an 8 year old boy. I reply: John, there are several ways this kind of catastrophe can be prevented. These track back to and include not having your finger inside the trigger gaurd and having a well designed weapon (some weapons are actually poorly enough designed as to go off when dropped or banged on something a little less gently). Having said that, a safety _can_ be a useful thing. However, your statement is overstatement. (Surprise!). The RCMP in Canada uses a Smith and Wesson (IIRC) semi-automatic pistol. That particular model _has_no_safety_. And these are police whose principal function is the protection of the public and who do not shoot when they have any kind of concern over where the round might go, obstructions, richochets, marginal hit percentages, etc. They have safety as a main concern, but they carry one up the spout and no safety. Why might they do this? (No, stupidity isn't it). The fact is a safety is a mechanical component that requires user operation at a key moment. Two problems arise from this: 1) it might jam (sometimes do) thus making the weapon unable to fire when it needs to and 2) the user might (in a moment of surprise or tension) forget to take it off or be incapable of it. Even trained soldiers and police have this problem under stress. So, by eliminating the safety, they eliminate this potentially lethal set of problems. Yes, it requires that you handle the weapon with respect - anyone who does not is an idiot. You keep it ALWAYS pointed away from things you don't consider expendable. You keep your finger out of the trigger gaurd until you mean to punch one into someone. You have a heavy enough pull-weight that the trigger won't easily depress accidently. You have a well enough designed weapon that a bang or bump won't set it off. You use stable ammunition. Do these things, and the odds of a mishap are very minimal (probably less than the odds of the two problems I described at the beginning, which is what the RCMP think anyway). Oh, and for the record, some weapons have very bad design. I have heard (no verification) that some early (perhaps even current?) models of the IMI desert eagle series had a small part related to the safety which fit in the weapon in two ways. One of which made the safety operable. The other of which rendered it inoperable and (I forget) may have disabled the weapon. But you couldn't tell if you weren't super careful and this was often screwed up under field conditions. The Delta Dude was being Hollywood or Gung-Ho, but the point remains. The best safety is a combination of good equipment design and a smart operator. [1] Tomb. [1] Safeties like the Thumb Safety on some .45 ACP pistols aren't so bad. And police in some states have sworn by them (although I've often wondered how you could actually hold the.45 without having depressed that safety - apparently you can and this has saved several police officers who've had their own weapon taken from them).