Into the Fray, Episode 110: A Few Words About Safeties
Kevin Michalowski | April 18, 2016
A safety on a firearm is simply a mechanical device. Whether you see a lever on the side of your pistol or not, that firearm still has some sort of safety mechanism.
Modern firearms without active external safety levers will utilize internal safety mechanisms to prevent the firearm from “going loud” unintentionally.
If you choose a firearm with a manual external safety, train with that firearm until disengaging the safety becomes second nature. Don’t train until you get it right. Train until you can’t get it wrong.
Yes. It Was Safe.
For the purposes of this video, we had to use real guns with real safeties. Before you start complaining about that, just assume that I triple-checked the firearms and that there was no ammunition even in the same room as we filmed.
In addition to the four cardinal safety rules, additional rules apply when it comes to training and fighting with a firearm:
Know the status of your firearm at all times. (Status: cleared, checked, and triple checked.)
Muzzle management. (Status: safe direction maintained during training.)
Trigger finger discipline. (Status: maintained at all times. Finger was only on the trigger with known status and muzzle in a safe direction.)
These rules interlock. That is, you have to break more than one simultaneously to have a truly unsafe situation. No cameramen were endangered during the making of this video.
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Explore Related Topics: ammunition blog external safety external safety levers firearm firearms firearms safety firearms safety rules four cardinal safety rules gun safety Into the Fray Kevin Michalowski manual safety muzzle management safe gun handling safeties safety safety lever safety mechanism trigger-finger discipline USCCA video video blog videos
I bought an Astra pistol in Chicago area when I lived there. It was 9mm Parabellum.
In the late 70s, I was doing cosmetics deliveries for this woman in the old neighborhood. She had this purple fluid that would take the kinks out of black's hair. I would deliver it by the gallon to the beauty shops on the south side. She told me, "Don't take any checks from those people." So I collected CASH. By the time I was finished, I had between $500 and $800 on me. And I ALWAYS CARRIED A PISTOL.
Never had any trouble, and I stayed off the side streets. But, I was making a right turn at 95th and Stony Island. There was a "ka-boom" off to my left rear. I floored it and got out of there. I looked at the driver door later and there were BB marks on it. I figure they shot a .410 at me. ;)
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke