Nockervision Education Volume Two: Safeties
[Karma fronting]
There is this enduring trend in the shooting community, both in new and old shooters, to view a gun without a manual "on/off" safety as unsafe. There is this enduring trend without the shooting community to view safeties to be the means through which safe and responsible gun ownership is achieved. They're both wrong.
There are two kinds of safeties.
Type 1 manually disables the firearm. Usually this takes the form of some lever, button, or sliding switch. Generally what it does is it inhibits or disconnects parts of the fire controls. One of the most common merely prevents the trigger from being pulled far enough for it to release the sear or hammer. It generally does not take the tension off of whatever spring will fire the gun, however. I.E. the most common type of safety does not uncock the gun. It does not, to my POV, make the gun safe. All it truly does it inhibit the manipulation of the fire controls. If something else were to jar the sear off, the gun would fire. This is not universally true of the on/off style safety, but it does cover a large percentage of them.
Type 2 prevents the gun from firing in an unsafe condition. Here's the "real" kind of safety. Let me elaborate on what this really does. Even a very "weak" cartridge will be generating high pressures, the low end that I'm aware of is something like 12,000psi. That is the equivalent of six tons being balanced on a point with a surface area of 1 square inch, and that pressure is being applied in every direction from the inside of the discharging cartridge. If the gun is not sufficiently well locked into the state it's meant to be in when the cartridge discharges (referred to as being "in battery"), even a "weak" cartridge could rupture or otherwise tear the gun apart with so much force, it can be considered to be "exploding."
Most of the time, the second type of safety is merely preventing the gun from being able to fire if it's not in battery. But, many times, it's also preventing the gun from firing in battery at the wrong time. Usually, this is referred to as a "drop safety," meaning the gun shouldn't be able to fire when dropped.
It's these drop safeties that really make a gun "safe," if they're working correctly. On a modern Smith & Wesson revolver, for example, the hammer cannot physically travel far enough to provide striking energy upon the primer of the cartridge if the trigger is fully rearward. The internal parts are arranged that way deliberately. Further, due to the "transfer bar" method, it cannot deliver striking energy alone, requiring the transfer bar to be between itself and the firing pin, which will only happen if the trigger is fully to the rear. In other words, if the safeties are working correctly on a modern Smith & Wesson revolver, it is *physically impossible* for the gun to fire in any situation other than with something pulling the trigger fully to the rear. In most of these guns, that requires more force than will be applied by hanging the gun by its trigger with the hammer cocked.
But, in the end, type 2 safeties merely focus on making sure the gun cannot fire until the gun is ready and something is pulling the trigger.
But both are mechanical devices or arrangements thereof. Ask a motorist how many mechanical devices, or arrangements thereof have failed in their current car, to date. Unless the car is fairly new, the number won't be zero, and even new cars can have a defect here and there.
It is not the mechanical safeties that make the gun safe. It is not having guns with safeties that makes a shooter responsible. It is 100% how the gun is maintained and operated that makes for a safe situation, not the levers and buttons and hidden wisdoms of it. If you're pulling the trigger of the gun, you should be fairly expecting it to go off. Even if you're sure it's empty, and you're sure the safety is engaged. Nothing else is truly safe.
There is this enduring trend in the shooting community, both in new and old shooters, to view a gun without a manual "on/off" safety as unsafe. There is this enduring trend without the shooting community to view safeties to be the means through which safe and responsible gun ownership is achieved. They're both wrong.
There are two kinds of safeties.
Type 1 manually disables the firearm. Usually this takes the form of some lever, button, or sliding switch. Generally what it does is it inhibits or disconnects parts of the fire controls. One of the most common merely prevents the trigger from being pulled far enough for it to release the sear or hammer. It generally does not take the tension off of whatever spring will fire the gun, however. I.E. the most common type of safety does not uncock the gun. It does not, to my POV, make the gun safe. All it truly does it inhibit the manipulation of the fire controls. If something else were to jar the sear off, the gun would fire. This is not universally true of the on/off style safety, but it does cover a large percentage of them.
Type 2 prevents the gun from firing in an unsafe condition. Here's the "real" kind of safety. Let me elaborate on what this really does. Even a very "weak" cartridge will be generating high pressures, the low end that I'm aware of is something like 12,000psi. That is the equivalent of six tons being balanced on a point with a surface area of 1 square inch, and that pressure is being applied in every direction from the inside of the discharging cartridge. If the gun is not sufficiently well locked into the state it's meant to be in when the cartridge discharges (referred to as being "in battery"), even a "weak" cartridge could rupture or otherwise tear the gun apart with so much force, it can be considered to be "exploding."
Most of the time, the second type of safety is merely preventing the gun from being able to fire if it's not in battery. But, many times, it's also preventing the gun from firing in battery at the wrong time. Usually, this is referred to as a "drop safety," meaning the gun shouldn't be able to fire when dropped.
It's these drop safeties that really make a gun "safe," if they're working correctly. On a modern Smith & Wesson revolver, for example, the hammer cannot physically travel far enough to provide striking energy upon the primer of the cartridge if the trigger is fully rearward. The internal parts are arranged that way deliberately. Further, due to the "transfer bar" method, it cannot deliver striking energy alone, requiring the transfer bar to be between itself and the firing pin, which will only happen if the trigger is fully to the rear. In other words, if the safeties are working correctly on a modern Smith & Wesson revolver, it is *physically impossible* for the gun to fire in any situation other than with something pulling the trigger fully to the rear. In most of these guns, that requires more force than will be applied by hanging the gun by its trigger with the hammer cocked.
But, in the end, type 2 safeties merely focus on making sure the gun cannot fire until the gun is ready and something is pulling the trigger.
But both are mechanical devices or arrangements thereof. Ask a motorist how many mechanical devices, or arrangements thereof have failed in their current car, to date. Unless the car is fairly new, the number won't be zero, and even new cars can have a defect here and there.
It is not the mechanical safeties that make the gun safe. It is not having guns with safeties that makes a shooter responsible. It is 100% how the gun is maintained and operated that makes for a safe situation, not the levers and buttons and hidden wisdoms of it. If you're pulling the trigger of the gun, you should be fairly expecting it to go off. Even if you're sure it's empty, and you're sure the safety is engaged. Nothing else is truly safe.