[TonyF]

Originally Posted by NineseveN

Having said that, keep in mind that one does not need to set the trigger (an informal glance at polls on the Walther forums suggests that most don't carry this way, instead opting to leaving it in AS mode which is a long and light pull or decocking it for DA on the first shot). The option itself is only unsafe if the shooter is not safe, which is true of any firing mode or any other feature on a firearm. It would be nearly impossible for someone to accidentally engage the trigger when setting it into SA mode without extreme negligence or a malfunction of the firearm itself. It's terribly hard to describe in words because unlike most other trigger mechanisms, this one has no direct comparison except for target-style set triggers, which are pretty rare as I understand it and even still, they require a different motion to engage.

It isn't something that one would suggest during an adrenaline dump, nor would I think anyone would actually try doing this during one (though there are exceptions), it's an option to set the trigger to SA mode before you put it in your holster for the day. Can it be dangerous if the user is negligent? Sure can, but so can a lot of features or mechanisms on any handgun.

I'll have to take a look at yours but it still troubles me because it violates Rule #3. So does field stripping a glock but at least with glocks you're pressing the trigger on a cleared weapon.

That depends on your hand size and what thumb you decock with. Your weak hand thumb can engage the decocker quite easily for most people. However, again, this isn't like a slide stop/release where someone will be needing to do it in the middle of combat (arguably, one would always want SA over the DA pull in a firefight), it's a method to add an extra bit of idiot-proofness or carry comfort to the gun before holstering for the day. Doing it with the weak hand or with the strong hand once the gun is in the holster (the two ways I would normally do it) is trivial.

I'm trying to conceptualize. One can reach the decocking button with the support side thumb w/o breaking their firing grip?

No offense meant to that person, but unless the instructors were demanding him use the gun in a certain way, I find that must have been a problem with the user. One needs not do anything to the gun any differently than the Glock, one need not use any of those options. With a Glock, you load the gun and holster it. There is no set of the trigger available, there is no decocker, and there is no safety. There is no need for the user to set the Walther trigger, it can be fired just by doing nothing more than loading the gun; same as a Glock (with a better, though longer trigger pull IMHO). There is no need to decock the gun, it's only there if one desires to use it (the P99 is no less safe when cocked than a Glock is sans decocker). If the instructors were demanding or training that this person must use the decock or the set trigger on the gun simply because they exist, IMHO, that's a problem with the training as well (the instructors being unfamiliar with the nuances of a different gun they may have had little to no experience with).

This was five or six years ago and I really can't recall the particulars. If I had to guess I'd say the only thing we asked him to do was decock on going to Low Ready after a drill as one would with a conventional DA/SA pistol.

IIRC, the student was the source of the confusion and it was his choice to switch to his glock.

I can understand from a marketing perspective designing in all those options and it's a credit to walther's engineering prowess to have figured out a way to do all that in one platform.

OTOH, they also gave us the P-38 and the rest as they say, is history.

I have no doubt it's a quality handgun but IMO providing that many options was unnecessary in what is essentially a striker fired design. I liken it to the version of the M&P 45 and Glock 21SF with the thumb safety. The only reason for a manual safety was due to it being a design criteria for the new .mil pistol that has yet to materialize.