Ditch the Manual Safety: How Mastering the 4 Rules Ensures Gun Safety

This may be counterintuitive, but manual safeties on a handgun are less safe. 

If you make the 4 Rules muscle memory there is no use for or need for a manual safety.  If however, you rely on an manual safety, you’re likely hoping it’ll save you from bad gun handling practices and that is extremely unsafe.  Make the 4 Rules muscle memory, keep a loaded gun in a holster, and you’ll be safe with any gun. 

To recap: Keep the gun in a holster when not being handled, protecting the trigger.  When removed from the holster you’re following the 4 Rules where your finger is off the trigger, and the barrel is pointed in a safe direction. 

Safer.  Simpler. 

A note about dropping guns.  Glocks and other firearms without manual safeties do have internal safeties, like all modern guns.  That means that with all modern guns if you drop it the gun will not fire.  Never try to catch a dropped gun because you’d inevitably violate one or more of the 4 Rules. Let it fall, then pick it up safely.