This is the single best thing about striker fired handguns. Like rifles, nobody can tell at a glance if they're cocked or not. If an exposed hammer is to the rear, it doesn't matter to the spring, but everybody from Sergeant Major Smith to Cletus the Hillbilly Hunter just HAS to lower that hammer because...apparently they think it's doing something bad to the spring?
When I finally transitioned over from the revolver to the semi-auto in 2002, I decided to carry a full-size 1911, due mainly to long familiarity with the pistol. I carried it in a Safariland SLS holster, which was the state of the art at the time. Of course, in that holster, the only way to carry was cocked-and-locked, but I also had long familiarity with that condition.
I was working a high school then, and ate lunch with the coaching staff. One day, sitting at the table, the head coach happened to notice that my pistol had the hammer back, cocked in the holster.
"Your pistol is cocked," he said, "Isn't that dangerous?"
"Of course, it's dangerous, Coach." I replied. "It's a gun. It's supposed to be dangerous."
We finished lunch, and I tried to impress upon him that he was in no danger from the gun firing accidentally. I don't think I succeeded. Because cocked guns are gangerous.
4 comments:
My standard reply is "otherwise the safety won't go on."
Wow... He must not have grown up in the South like we did...
I like striker fired pistols, particularly Glocks. Revolvers are classic and not unuseful but I like Glocks for work guns. Preferably in 9mm.
My father always had a problem with me carrying my 1911 cocked and locked. He'd carried one in the Army Guard back in the last 60's and had only learned to carry it hammer down on an empty chamber. He could never understand the cocked and locked style. I miss him.
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