One question I get asked frequently in class is, “When do you use the safety?”
Now obviously you switch the safety off before firing. I think we’ve all got that covered intuitively. The question revolves more around when should you put the pistol back on safe. There are generally two schools of thought, and I am very deeply encamped in one.
School of Never: once the safety comes off, it stays off until you’re ready to holster the gun again.
School of Always: whenever the pistol isn’t being fired, the safety should go back on.
If you’ve been reading this website for any length of time, you can probably guess that I’m a huge practitioner of the latter approach. The same rules apply to a double-action gun that is normally carried in a hammer down, “decocked” double action condition. If the gun isn’t pointing toward a target, it gets deocked (or put on safe).
What exactly does that mean, “pointing toward a target?” Essentially it covers two conditions and only those two conditions:
I’m actively firing rounds at a target.
I’m actively driving the gun toward a target that I intend to shoot.
That’s it. Under any other circumstance, if the gun has been taken off safe (or a double action gun has been fired and left in the cocked condition) I’ll safe/decock as part of my return-to-ready ritual. When I dismount the gun, when I’m not aiming it at a target, it gets put on safe (or decocked).
Read more…
#guns #handguns #rifle #shotgun #ammo #shooting #gunsmith #2a #pistol
