Glock’s ‘’Safe Action’’ isn’t very safe. I am very leery of it.
Teaching proper gun etiquette would be an excellent use of public funds for police training. One NEVER puts one’s finger on the trigger unless there is deliberate intent to fire.
Teach your officers to keep their finger off the trigger. Cooper safety rule #3.
I’n sure that the LAT would prefer flintlocks for the police.
From my perspective the vast majority of local police are poorly trained in firearms. This is aggravated by the fact that almost all now carry high capacity semi-auto, which require a great deal more training to handle safely and shoot in crisis situations without recourse to the “spray and pray” method. I have never seen any evidence suggesting there was/is a compelling reason for most cops to carry those kinds of guns.
1911s doing it better for over 100 years. In a critical situation you can carry it cocked and locked. A flick of the thumb makes it ready fire.
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Why The Los Angeles Times Should Release its Tape of Obama With Rashid Kalidi
Some departments add a NY trigger that is harder than the factory 5.5lbs trigger pull. Most striker fired pistols have similar trigger pulls, more than an SA trigger and less than a DA trigger.
DA revolvers in SA mode (cocked) have lighter triggers, but in DA mode, many are over 12lbs. Revolvers don’t have external safeties. They do have a much lower capacity.
DA/SA pistols have two trigger positions, cocked and locked and single action. On many, the 1st shot uses a heavy trigger pull and subsequent shots are SA very light.
A lot of folks chose Glocks because they are nearly as simple as revolvers. Under immediate threat with all kinds of things going thru your mind, all you have to do with a Glock or most revolvers is pull the trigger. Many guns you have to remember whether you used the decocker or the safety or some other lever.
Glocks are just plain simple, but it does have dangers you have to respect. Think of it as a semi auto revolver with a high cap mag and a fairly light trigger.
Keep your bugger hook off the bang button.
-to plagiarize posters in the past "keep your booger-hooks off the bang switch until you intend to shoot"--
Many years ago I repaired police radios. As such, by policy and for whatever warped reason, I was required to attend one of the police academy’s safety classes.
The police captain who held the class had written on the blackboard and said, “NO MAGNUM!” as his very first statement. He went on to explain that an officer was in the parking lot of a supermarket where a robbery had just been committed. He was standing between the rows of cars as the ‘getaway car’ approached him at high speed. He took out his .357 Magnum and shot the driver. The police captain explained that the getaway driver’s arm was almost torn off and that is why no Magnums were allowed.
I then raised my hand. He acknowledged me, I suppose, because he thought that I was going to ask a question.
I said, “Under the circumstances and I had been in that same situation, I would have aimed for the driver’s neck in the hope that it would tear off his head!” Everyone laughed but I was dead serious. He dropped the subject because everyone had laughed.
On second thought, I would have hoped that I had a bazooka instead of simply a .357 Magnum.
Accidents happen. I understand that but when faced with a life-threatening situation, no gun is ‘too large’ or ‘too powerful’ or ‘too light on the trigger’.
I love Glocks, but they are a really bad choice if you are negligent. Most police have extremely good firearms manners, but even 10% being careless with Glocks will lead to weekly stories on “what the Glock did”. The truth though is that what the cop did was wrong, while the Glock is an excellent work of engineering that leaves no margin for error when reckless people violate safety rules.
I call Bull-Butter!
Glocks have (at least) one more safety than a revolver, which was standard issue for the vast majority of agencies even after the advent of semi-auto’s, not to mention striker-fired, polymer-framed pistols.
In both of the situations described, it sounds like the weapon was out of the holster due to some perceived threat the officers were trying to locate. If they are clearing a building/room, then even with a multiple-safety gun like a 1911, both grip-safety and thumb-safety would have been off with only a (relatively) light, short trigger press needed to make it go *bang*. Any pistol would likely have gone off in the situations described in the hands of those particular officers because they would (should) have made the gun ready to fire as soon as it cleared leather. If they didn’t have an articulable need for it, it should have stayed in the holster.
But back to revolvers, unless a Glock has had trigger work done, the factory (typical dept approved) trigger isn’t all that much shorter than an uncocked revolver, has a similar pull weight and is a whole heck of a lot longer & heavier than a revolver with the hammer cocked.
Instead of jumping to the easy, “low-hanging fruit” conclusion that the pistol is to blame, they should take the hard path and ask if standards and training have been lowered to meet budget demands. Perhaps they should also look at recruiting for quality instead of quantity.
Some cops can be trusted with a 3lb trigger. Some shouldn’t be trusted with a 50lb trigger. What was the case here? So again, I call bull-butter. The problem in both cases is more likely to be found with the Officers and not the tool. Plenty of officers employ all manner of handguns (including Glocks) in high-stress, life or death situations and do not AD.
Frame index. Learn it, live it, love it. Any firearm in that situation can be touched off if the shooter is startled and has his finger where it shouldn’t be.
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More BS for the gun phobic fools to eat up.
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In the trade, commonly called, “GLOCK LEG!”
Absolutely NOT for the untrained. I dearly love my GLOCK 19 and 26, but anyone else wants to use them? Buy your own damned GLOCK!
MARSOC recently approved them for use. At request of Marines themselves. That says a lot!