Manual Safety

**Rblakely** · June 2nd, 2013, 08:48 PM

I have a Bersa Firestorm as my everyday carry gun (IWB). I have been carrying it with the manual safety on. As much as I practice I can not quickly unholster the weapon, thumb release the safety and pull a double action shot. If I can not do this quickly at the range how will I ever be able to do it under a stressful life threatening situation. Without the manual safety I can pull and shoot, on target, fairly quickly. Should I continue trying to smoothly disengage the manual safety or carry with it off?

**thorazine** · June 2nd, 2013, 08:53 PM

Originally Posted by Rblakely

Should I continue trying to smoothly disengage the manual safety or carry with it off?

I never use a manual safety.

Safety is your finger and a decent holster which protects the trigger guard.

**dregan** · June 2nd, 2013, 08:57 PM

What ever you feel more comfortable with. You can analyze it numerous ways with pros and cons to each argument.. In the end its personal preference.

**ettorment1916** · June 2nd, 2013, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by thorazine

I never use a manual safety.

Safety is your finger and a decent holster which protects the trigger guard.

If you protect the "trigger guard" are you by default protecting the actual trigger twice? You know extra security...

I know you meant trigger and not trigger guard. Just bustin' your chops a bit.

**filgun11** · June 2nd, 2013, 09:47 PM

I'm gonna go against what has been suggested so far.

Since your gun has manual safety, I would continue to practice swiping the safety off. You will never know when the safety would be accidentally pushed on. The last thing you want is draw with the safety on, then panic that it won't fire. Better have the muscle memory of swiping it off, whether the safety is on or off.

If you really don't want to be bothered with the safety, get a new gun with no safety lever like Glocks, Springfield XD, etc.

**HUHwhat** · June 2nd, 2013, 09:56 PM

I had the same concern. After writing about it here, and hearing opinions I decided to pull the slide back, and put my gun into my holster without any of the gun's (so called) safety. Ever since than I've kept a round in the chamber just about all times. I've also herd other people talk about how they keep a round in the chamber, no safety, and the hammer half cocked; no other way. The most important thing is to keep it in the holster.

**JonEMTP** · June 3rd, 2013, 12:14 AM

I don't normally carry guns with an external safety. The exceptions are my 1911's and my M&P Shield. When I do carry a gun with an external safety, I use it, and I practice disengaging it.

One "what if" concern I have about carrying a firearm with an external safety that isn't active is: What if the safety gets engaged somehow while in the holster? If I train to disengage it, I have no worries. If I train as if it doesn't exist, well, I might get myself into trouble that way.

**Rblakely** · June 3rd, 2013, 10:29 AM

Thanks to everyone for the input.

I will continue to work to reduce the amount of time it takes me to disengage the safety and put rounds on target. If I can get that to where I am happy (about two seconds from threat recognized to placing two rounds on the target) then I will carry with the safety on. If I can not get down to 2 seconds then I will carry with it off.

**QuackXP** · June 3rd, 2013, 12:09 PM

Originally Posted by Rblakely

I have a Bersa Firestorm as my everyday carry gun (IWB). I have been carrying it with the manual safety on. As much as I practice I can not quickly unholster the weapon, thumb release the safety and pull a double action shot. If I can not do this quickly at the range how will I ever be able to do it under a stressful life threatening situation. Without the manual safety I can pull and shoot, on target, fairly quickly. Should I continue trying to smoothly disengage the manual safety or carry with it off?

I do not prefer carry firearms with a manual safety, especially on firearms that are DA/SA, DAO or striker fired. I feel that a longer trigger pull and a quality holster provide sufficient amount of protection against a negligent or accidental discharge. I understand that on SAO firearms that a manual safety is virtually a requirement to carry such a firearm safely even in a holster as the chance of a negligent or accidental discharge with such a short trigger pull goes up. Therefore I do not prefer SAO firearms for carry.

However if you do have a firearm that is DA/SA, DAO or striker fired and has a manual safety I would still train to keep it engaged and to disengage it when ready to fire. The last thing you want is to assume the safety is off when it accidently gets engaged and then fumble with it when your are in a self defense situation.

Some manual safety's can be removed without interfering with the operation of the firearm but there is debate on weather than could be used against you if you ever had to go to court over a defensive shooting.

If I where you I would train to use the manual safety or replace the firearm with a model that does not have one.