[NYFriend]

The disconnect is a stupid person safety feature. Stupid people think that dropping the mag. empties the weapon. They can then point it at friends and drop the hammer on a loaded chamber. Smith and Wesson signed Andy Cuomo's HUD compact on gun saftey that included putting magazine disconnects on all autoloaders. The weapon won't fire with out a magazine.

The M9, when DoD was accepting bids, could not have a disconnect. It is one more mechanical thing that could fail and disable the weapon, the magazine could become damaged, or accidently dropped, and it renders the weapon useless while reloading. Some of us were trained never to let an automatic pistol go dry. You reload when there is still a round in the chamber. That way, you don't need to worry about the slide release or racking the slide to chamber a round. Also, if a threat appears in that half second before the new magazine is in you can engage with the one round still in the gun.

[supercat]

Also, if a threat appears in that half second before the new magazine is in you can engage with the one round still in the gun.

I've been told that some people who regularly carry a backup pistol like having a magazine-disconnect on the primary pistol, since if the bad-guy makes a successful grab at the pistol one can drop the magazine and draw the backup on a crook who will be fumbling with the now-useless primary gun.

Of course, that idea only works if the backup gun is ready and available.