Posted on 01/12/2008 7:02:46 AM PST by Last Dakotan
A 35-year veteran of the Cass County Sheriffs Department will remain on duty while authorities investigate how he accidentally discharged his weapon while using the bathroom Thursday at the Cass County Courthouse.
Detective Dean Wawers was in the mens restroom on the main floor of the courthouse about 12:45 p.m. when his standard-issue handgun a .40-caliber Glock Model 23 accidentally discharged, Sheriff Paul Laney said Friday during a news conference.
(Excerpt) Read more at in-forum.com ...
“Glock has 3 safeties:”
Is this the same Glock that NYPD and Glock had so many accidental discharges with?
Didn't say it was under tension.
Exactly.
Who cares about "tension" except the amount of "tension" required to trip the sear. And as you know, my preference for my DA/SA Sigs is the long stroke DA @ 10.5#s .For me, that design is my safety with one in the pipe... (with successive at 4-4.5#).
I would not feel comfortable carrying my Glock; and thus has been relegated as my home office defense weapon.
well if it misfired it didn’t go off.
All of which turned out to be idiots holstering or doing other tasks with their finger on the trigger.
The first New York trigger for Glocks was 7 pounds. But even that wasn’t enough to keep NY cops from shooting themselves, so they came out with a second one, which is a staggering 10 pounds.
Please note that NY also led the nation in accidental discharges when all they had were *revolvers*, so this is a departmental issue, rather than an equipment issue. NYPD just won’t train its officers properly.
This may be of interest to you.
http://www.lesjones.com/posts/002437.shtml
From the article:
"A Tennessee Highway Patrolman accidentally shot himself in the leg when he re-holstered his gun following a foot chase. He's in stable condition... The THP issues Glocks, so I'm 99% that's what he was carrying."
"Of course, I can't be sure the installation of a NY Trigger would have made any difference in the foregoing incident. However, in my informal tracking, departments with NY triggers installed on their Glocks consistently experience fewer accidents than do those with standard triggers. If you own and carry any Glock pistol for serious purposes, it is my recommendation that you install a NY Trigger without delay!"
Looking further into the issue of striker tension, according to several articles I just read, I was wrong. The striker is indeed under some tension, but not enough to fire the gun even if the stiker were released. See the excerpt below.
The Glock, unlike most centerfire handguns, does not have a hammer which is dropped to push a firing pin when the trigger is pulled. Instead, the Glock has a striker which is completely enclosed within the slide. Whenever a round is in the chamber, the striker is partially retracted under tension. There isn’t enough tension to fire the gun if for some reason the striker were forced forward from this position.
When the shooter pulls the trigger, the striker is retracted the rest of the way to full tension, wherefrom it can fire the gun. Because the trigger action needs only retract the striker part way, the trigger stroke is shorter and lighter than traditional DA designs.
Glocks only go off if you put your finger in the trigger guard and pull the trigger. That's what this dufus did.. in the john no less. On rare occasions something else snags on the trigger, there is no "positive" safety which must be disengaged, but that too should not happen as long as the gun remains in it's holster. This being in the mens room, I'd hesitate to speculate about what "something else" might be.
A better option would be to “KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO SHOOT, IDIOT!” as my DI father taught me.
True, Fargo ND.
Is that similar to what she said at the drive-in?
“Is that similar to what she said at the drive-in?”
That deserves a ‘rim-shot”!! Ba-dump Bump!
Good point. One wonders why the NYPD and DEA doesn't offer the same advice to its people.
Fixed it.
L
“How old are you? Twelve?”
I heard the same Booger Hook comment from a SWAT Lieutenant when I was taking my CCW class way back when.
That explains it.
Thanks, I’m a 1911 shooter and carry cocked and locked. I’m not a big Glock fan (no problems with them)so I don’t keep up with them.
Even a cocked-and-locked single action like your 1911 or my favored Browning High Power has been known to go off when some idiot pulls the trigger - even with the safety on.
The only safety that matters is the one between your ears. Too bad DEA/NYPD?etc., don’t seem to teach that.
The hard and fast rule of gun safety is: “Unless you’ve personally cleared and verified the gun first, all guns should be treated as if they will go bang when you touch the trigger.”
Hmmm, well, yours may have been a misfire, but it sounds like his could be more accurately described as an "AD", or "accidental discharge".
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