Springfield XD Grip Safety

[jwalker497]

Quick little poll and please explain your vote.

Do you think the XD Grip safety makes it more safe than a similar pistol w/o like a glock for example. Obviously, we all know to keep our finger off the trigger, so please refrain from stating the obvious.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[jwalker497]

Wow, I am really suprised at the results so far 7 to 0 say it is a safer design. I would have to agree. The only issue I have with the XD is that the comparable sub-compact Glocks win in almost every dimension size wise.

[beaker]

that makes no sense, you're surprised with the results so far, but you agree. and uh, who really cares about size, especially when its mere centimeters. i managed to conceal a desert eagle with little effort. besides this is about XD grip safeties.. not issues with XD's or a sales pitch for glocks.

i say it is more safe. i made a mistake of leaving my XD out one time with a friend over.. a friend who knows very little about guns. usually i put it up/hide it or holster it. he didn't know i have guns. well, he picked it up with his his thumb on top of the slide and his index finger in the trigger guard and says "cool gun"
thankfully he didn't point it at me.

yes, extra safeties make for more moving parts and fewer moving parts make for a more reliable gun. usually. but this isn't about reliability. and yes, you should never rely on safeties. number 1 safety is your finger, we all know. but, you can never be too safe. who knows if he applied any pressure to the trigger. which i might add, is very light on the XD. but if he did, thanks to the grip safety, it didn't go off.

needless to say i schooled him the proper gun handling procedures.

[TN_Mike]

Yep, I think it makes it safer. How exactly would it not make it safer??

[HahnsXD]

Of course it does..

I hear a lot of people say it's unnecessary, and it's added complexity. It's a lever and a spring, it isn't rocket science..

[TX-JB]

Of course it makes it safer... Does it matter to me, no... I have both Glocks and a XD45... The most important safety is still between your ears...

[SleepingZ]

Biggest plus for me is when I re-holster the gun, I don't push on the grip safety, so if the trigger would catch something going back in the holster, it won't go bang. I have read about cases where the trigger caught a piece of clothing during the holstering process and went off.

Z

[silo]

Safety is relevant to the situation. Safety in everyday carry.. yeah, it's probably more safe. But in a situation where you're shooting and your hand gets injured, now that safety has become a liability. I'd rather go without.

[10thmtn]

Safeties cut both ways. They can help you, but they can also hurt you.

If you have a poor grip during a struggle, it can keep you from being able to fire. It's happened to someone on this forum - thankfully it was only at a match.

Some folks have hands that make it difficult to disengage the safety with a proper grip.

It's a similar debate with mag disconnects - in a struggle you can eject the mag, and the gun will not fire if it is taken from you. But - if you accidentally dump the mag during a struggle, you cannot fire the gun yourself.

Which is better? Personal choice. And it depends on the situation, which you don't get to choose ahead of time.

Personally, I want my defensive pistol as simple as possible. Fewer things to go wrong. I want it to go bang when I want it to, and to have as few impediments as possible to that happening.

And yes, a comparable Glock is smaller and lighter in weight to an XD. I like the Glock's lower bore axis as well. I've used both, and both are good pistols (and are what I typically recommend in this size class), but my preference is for the Glock.

Of course, whichever you use, treat it with the respect that a potentially deadly weapon deserves.

[Armydad]

I like the grip safety better than a thumb switch as there is less to remember in the heat of things. The earlier XD grip safeties were thin, but the the newer guns have a much wider blade that make them much easier to engage. As has already been said, the main and best safety is the one between your ears.

[MinistrMalic]

I like having it there, mostly for the kids in my house.

[Kinetic]

I am of the school of thought of just how would it make it less safe? I have heard the "if you don't have a good grip on it" arguments, and the "size or shape of your hand making it hard to disengage the grip safety" arguments and they don't hold water for me. If one has any kind of grasp on the grip that would be sufficient enough to support discharging the firearm, that grip safety will be good to go. It really does not take much to disengage it.

[OldVet]

No, I don't.

How many safeties does a firearm need to be "safe"? An external safety, Safetyblock for the trigger, wooden wedge jammed into the hammer, lock-out for magazines until needed? The list of possible, though not necessarily practical safeties goes on and on.

And the specific purpose of the grip safety is for...? To keep it from firing if it's dropped? Isn't that what the firing pin/striker block does, in a Glock or similar firearm without a grip or external safety?

It does nothing to prevent the trigger from being pulled as the gun is "gripped" at that time. So I don't see where that makes it any Safer than anything else.

But if it makes you more comfortable, then by all means, get it.

[EdC]

I voted Yes, and I have an XD45 and a Glock 19. Here's where I will contradict myself. If I were asked if I thought the Glock and others like it were "less safe" than the XD with it's grip safety, I'd be inclined to answer no, not really, because in my mind, the implication would be that the Glock is "unsafe." Funny how my mind works

There is one particular circumstance I can think of where the XD grip safety might come into play, and that is where the gun is accidentally dropped, and in the spur of the moment, someone instinctfully tries to catch it. (Don't do that-there's another thread somewhere here about that). I think that the grip safety would make it less likely to have an accidental discharge in that situation.

[Vaquero 45]

The only correct answer is no. In this case, safety is a concept of human interaction with firearms. No firearm in good working order is inherently any less safe or more safe than another. When you start assigning which design is "safer" than another, you start feeding into the BS that leads politicians to dictate firearms design.

If the pistol will not unintentionally fire by itself, it is safe. Period. Anything else is personal responsibility....although I'm sure many don't understand that concept nowadays.

The question is moot.