VPC once again tries to pull bring back of the Gun Control’s favorite zombies. But the reality is that unless you are toting a very old revolver (or some cheap no longer in production semi auto), your sidearm will be safe enough that it may fall and not go off. Barring quality control issues, a right-out-off-the-box pistol is one of the safest tools in production.
The issue is mostly with the so-called accidental discharges one gets to read in newspapers where a dumbass tells cops “It just went off” rather than admit they were finger-frolicking the trigger of a loaded gun. And also we have people who have actually dropped a gun and instead of letting it fall all the way to the ground, instinctively reach and grab it with a finger ending up pulling the trigger.
There is one more option and that is a gun owner who fancies himself the greatest gunsmith on earth and starts to modify a gun without really knowing what he is doing or without regard for proper safety. a One Pound trigger pull might be cool in your imaginary neck of the Tactical Woods, but you are just asking for a bullet to take an unscheduled trip at the worst possible moment.
And of course there is that one place where all these myths come to happen: Hollywood.
PS:Pump shotguns by the nature of having a floating firing pin may go off if the shotgun falls on the stock or the stock gets a kick upwards. Always store a shotgun with the chamber empty.
Actually the insanely popular reproductions of Colt 1873 SAA(like the original) can easily go off when dropped, prompting cowboys for over a century to carry w/ only 5 bullets. California has a handgun drop safety test required for all guns to pass before allowed for sale. The legislation specifically EXEMPTS single action revolvers from testing. Yes, guns that are designed to pass the test are required to participate. Guns designed to fail are exempt!
They are not making the repros with the safety transfer bar? I know Ruger not only does it but retrofits pre-1974 revolvers for free.
I went to the Uberti pistol website to check this claim. The currently produced models of the Uberti Colt 1873s are made with a hammer block that should prevent firing if the revolver is dropped with the hammer cocked.
Read the online instruction manual, tell me if I am wrong.
I was kind of freaked out when I learned that revolvers have more safety features(firing pin blocks and disconnects) than long guns.
The ideal gun design is one that will always go off if the trigger is pulled(and the chamber has a live round and the safety is off and the hammer, if applicable, is cocked), and never go off at any other time.
Handguns are designed (at least modern combat pistols) to live on your hip or ankle, or under your arm pit for years, getting handled when you get dressed in the morning, stop to evacuate waste, or come home at the end of a long day. They are intended to be safe around you in the heat and the cold.
Rifles are designed largely to sit in a rack, or in a safe and then be pulled out when you KNOW there is trouble.
When you have a handgun on your hip you are busy living your life, when you have a rifle in your hands, the rifles is what you are doing.
I understand that. It’s part of why, for example, motorcycles and garbage trucks don’t have as many safety features as automobiles.(either harder to engineer the safety features or the vehicle is used so rarely and for such a specific purpose that incidents the safety features are supposed to mitigate almost never come up)
I do stand by my last paragraph, though.
My Rem 870 has a substantial spring on its firing pin. It is in no way floating like an AR’s. Is Remington’s pump design an exception or am I not understanding this issue?
I used wrong term… unblocked firing pin would be more appropriate.
AR-15s and many other firearms have unblocked and free floating firing pins and aren’t known to have issues with drop firing. I think the problem lies more with firearms that have their single action hammer/sear adjusted for the shortest lightest travel.
Also, I’m fairly certain that the shotgun video was a hang fire (also extremely rare).
I recall that in the AR series there were problems when the standard pin was substituted by an aftermarket titanium. Very few cases of NDs but more than one unfired cartridge ended up with marks that shouldn’t be there.
The common trope of “I dropped it, and it went off” often translates to “I negligently pulled its trigger, and then dropped it after being surprised by the unexpected loud noise.”
Or I dropped the gun and was more concerned about the finish of my gun than my personal safety in the event I catch it by the trigger.
Also with all the concealed carry popularity there has been a few stories of pocket carry without a holster, or belt carry of a $400 gun in a $15 holster.
Maybe they should look up H.P.White labs and the drop tests they did back in the 70’s. A weight equal to the gun was dropped on the hammer from 3 ft. If it fired, it didn’t pass. Their google-fu sucks.
[…] They don’t have a clue.. […]
Actually, that scene from True Lies (one of my favorite movies) is not that fanciful.
Open-bolt (full auto) MAC-10s can go off if dropped if the safely isn’t on. The closed-bolt (semi) version available to civilians can’t.
Then again, how many people here think that the VPC truly believes that little kids all over the US have access to full-auto MAC-10’s?
Thing is it’s what the VPC does, ANYTHING that looks like a machine gun or sub-machine gun. is by default one since a good majority of the people don’t know any better.
Christ on a skateboard I got an SKS that I put a 30 rnd mag on and you would be surprised at the people that think it’s a machine-gun.AK47 in other words.
I posted on their page that there are actually government defined standards by which a great many handguns are tested to legally defined standard: The California Roster of Guns Certified For Sale
http://certguns.doj.ca.gov/
This draconian, nonsensical, gun-ban-by-another-name is one of the laws that the VPC loves to point out touting the “common sense” gun laws that California has established.
They are letting some pretty ignorant people post crap on their official page.
I wonder how long my post will survive? Here is a link to a screenshot of my posting:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66333908/VPC%20Comment.png
[…] …However that doesn’t cease them from being against them. […]