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What's the point of a magazine safety?

6K views 102 replies 49 participants last post by  earlwb 
#1 ·
I have 2 22 pistols with one and can't for the life of me figure out what it's for.
 
#56 ·
Think is a reason dreamed up to tell people instead of telling the real reason which is one of the arguments of the gun safety crowd -- store gun and mags separately and it is safer. Gun cannot be fired without maginze inserted. Turst me if all semi auto firearms had to have a magazine safety, the anti-gun crowd would be screaming for separate storage in separate secure storage containers.
 
#8 · (Edited)
The French military demanded it on the Highpower to keep their personnel from inadvertently shooting each other. I believe it was added after JNB passed to his reward. Like many French ideas, it just took off.

Practically the entire pistol was designed after JMB passed! :cool:

Actually, there have been several 'accidental' shootings where someone had removed the magazine, forgot about the one in the chamber, BANG, oopsie!
Of course, the lack of a magazine safety was blamed. :rolleyes:

Also a safety feature when one has children. Pistol kept with chamber loaded, but mag removed and hidden nearby.

Yeah, :rolleyes:I know locked and or out of reach! Not my idea, but it happens. Was actually popular long before biometric bedside safes.
 
#10 ·
My 22/45 Mark IV is the first pistol I've owned with a magazine safety. I don't get it, either, but then again, these kinds of safety devices originated a century ago.

Think about this. A hundred years ago, keeping your finger off the trigger wasn't even a standard practice. The hyper-vigilance when it comes to safety and training that we gun folk push on each other is a relatively new phenomenon. Magazine safeties are just a carry-over from a different era.
 
#12 ·
Yes, but many gun owners today do not have a lot of common sense, and were not properly trained by gun-knowledgeable old-timers. Those who do have training other than what they saw on TV, might have trained with a pistol that was equipped with a mag safety or disconnector.

And with product liability being what it is, it is prudent for the manufacturers to do so.
 
#15 ·
Its there for the stupid people.

The real problem is that there are some guns with 'magazine disconnect' and some guns without 'magazine disconnect". This does lead to confusion, because some people will believe that all guns have a magazine disconnect or are empty when the magazine gets dropped.

Those of us that have some knowledge of gun safety tend to be smart enough to drop the magazine and rack the slide to unload the round in the pipe hate the magazine disconnect. Why? Well because of tactical reload. But many novice gun owners that keep a gun in the house have no idea of what a tactical reload is. To us that have some knowledge, of a tactical reload (not that I will ever have the need to use a tactical reload simply because I have no intention of getting into a prolong gun fight) know it could save your life if you know you are running out of ammo in the magazine... because that second or two that you drop the magazine, you can still fire your gun, plus you may not have to rack the slide to keep shooting. But if you are in a gun fight, run out of ammo, and your gun goes click, or the slide locks back, you will be vulnerable to your assailant who could use that opportunity to gun you down. The tactical reloads allows you to refresh your magazine when it a good time for you, not your assailant.

BUT... and its a big BUT... the magazine disconnect is there for the gun ignorant people that have little knowledge of how semi-autos work. Case in point, we had a dumb step-mother here a few months ago that thought it was funny to play with a gun with her step son and his friend that came over for dinner. She pulled out a Glock... removed the magazine and started to point the gun at the kids, and at the family dog. The kids got nervous, one ran out of the house. She laughed, said it was empty because she removed the magazine, and nothing would happen but continued her game of pointing the gun at her step son. She pulled the trigger killing him. That my friends is why some manufacturers put magazine disconnects in guns! For the ignorant morons out there have never be properly educated.

.

I have a couple of guns with magazine disconnects... the one that comes to mind is the first generation Ruger LC9. The first ones came out with thumb safeties, DAO hammer action and the dreaded magazine disconnect. I remember the backlash that Ruger received... the second generation (I got one of those as well) was striker action, no thumb safety, no magazine disconnect.

The problem as I see it... it leads novice gun owners to confusion because if they learn to use a gun with the mag disconnect, they might get the wrong idea that all semi-autos operate the same way.

Anyhow, that is my 2 cents on the topic. But its there for a reason.
 
#27 ·
People who don't understand how guns work, think removing the mag is how a gun is unloaded.
For non-dedicated personnel, it's probably a good idea.
If you want to have a gun in something of a ready condition, you load, remove and retain the magazine, and you are pretty close to ready, while maintaining a "safe" environment for kids, visitors, etc.
 
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#28 ·
When my Son was 7, I took him out to the range and showed him what a rifle round would do to a plastic Milk Jug filled with water. I also had him fire my 1911-A1 45 ACP and he put all of the rounds into the target. At 7, he enjoyed shooting the 22L pistol much more because of the lower recoil and left my 1911 A1 alone. From then on, he respected firearms and he never messed around.
 
#29 ·
How many people don't know that a car can still start after all the fuel in the tank is removed ? Because of filter, float bowls, etc? ----- Most people don't know.

How many people don't know that you can still flush a toilet after the water is turned off? --------- Most .

How many people do not know that an unplugged TV's capacitor can shock the heck out of you? ------ Most .

So It's not logical to believe that the common muggles of the world understand that a gun without a magazine can still have a round in the chamber. Hence, the safety.

Heck, I often see guns supposedly rendered unloaded, by magazine removal, on TV & in films.

The knowledge that a gun Is still loaded after mag removal is just not common among the non-shooting public.
 
#30 ·
I don't like them, but I understand the logic, and I rarely bother removing them. The only reason I remove them from Beretta 70S pistols is because it's so easy to do, and they're so easy to direct-chamber load and use as single-shot pistols if you were to lose your mag.
 
#31 ·
The danger of having a magazine safety is that you cannot operate the trigger without leaving a magazine in place... hopefully an empty one. When dry-firing I always leave the magazine out of the pistol for safety reasons. A mag safety forces me to break that rule.
 
#33 ·
There was a story that accompanied a Navy training film for the 1911 about someone who got his down-loading sequence mixed up by first racking the slide (chambering a round), and then ejecting the mag.
Then he dropped the hammer by pulling the trigger.
 
#34 ·
The Lion King story, Travis Maldonado killed himself while demonstrating that his new Ruger would not fire without the m
Witnesses told sheriff's detectives that Travis Maldonado took the magazine out of a gun and held the barrel to his head. He knew there was a bullet in the chamber, but Travis Maldonado said it would not fire without the magazine. He then squeezed the trigger, Rhodes said. The gun fired.

Sheriff: Husband of 'Joe Exotic' held gun to head, pulled trigger, thinking it wouldn't fire (oklahoman.com)
 
#35 ·
People do stupid things. Once visiting a buddy in Texas, at a town called Denton, while at a gun show a dealer took out his personal custom 1911 to show a customer, he dropped the mag and for some reason pointed it at the floor, and sure nuff the one left in the chamber and it went off. when he pulled the trigger. My buddy was a doctor so we rushed to the sound. About 250-300 people in there, a concrete floor in a National Guard Armory and no one got shot. About 2 minutes later people started chanting throw him out throw him out. And they did, he packed up his table and was gone.


There are more stupid people than you think.
 
#39 ·
Hey you want to keep your magazines safe right. Not that hard to figure out.
 
#40 ·
My Ruger 22/45 MK III had the Magazine Safety, I think its the first of the Rugers.
As well as being for those that forget that a round could be chambered, after removing the magazine, I though the owners manual said something about improving safety while cleaning. i.e. most negligent discharges happen while cleaning the weapon.

The Army's specs for the M-17 and M-18 I believe call for provisions that help prevent negligent discharges while cleaning.
I've confirmed with my Sig P320 M-18:
  • The take down lever is blocked from moving into position to field strip the weapon if a magazine is in the pistol.
  • The take down lever is blocked from moving into position to field strip the weapon if the slide stop is not moved up in position to lock the slide open.
  • (yes, even with the slide held in position, the lever is blocked, until you lift the slide stop lever up to lock the slide back)
  • After assemble, if you do not lock the slide back with the slide stop before rotating the take down lever back to the assembled position, the trigger will be blocked.
  • (yes, after assembling everything, even holding the slide back to full aft position, the trigger will be disabled until you lock the slide back with the slide stop lever)
But, unlike a Mag Safety, these measures really only create the most minor inconvenience. You never field strip the pistol with the magazine in anyway. You just have to remember to lock the slide back with the slide stop before throwing the take down lever, both for disassembly and reassembly.
 
#46 ·
Just remember the old saying... if you make something idiot-proof someone will come up with a better idiot.
 
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