So-- Isn't this a Grip Safety??

[Hick]

OK-- I know I'm displaying my ignorance a little here-- but I haven't handled any relatively modern semi-auto pistols, until I took a class today.

In the class they showed us a Springfield semi-auto (9mm) with a "grip safety". A lever on the grip so that the trigger is only released to fire if you firmly grip the pistol holding the lever against the back of the grip. This "Modern" invention is recognized as being a true safety.

But isn't this what our Model 94's have had from the beginning? We have to grip the lever up against the stock in order to release the trigger?

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems to me this refutes all those 'experts' who think the older Model 94's are unsafe because they have no safety.

[fast ronnie]

I think the 1911 a-1's had them too.

[OptimusPanda]

The P08 Lugers have them as well.

[jrmartin1964]

The lever-activated trigger block on your Model 94 goes all the way back to the Winchester Model 1873, a feature added to that model in 1879.

[TXGunNut]

A grip activated safety feature has been around almost as long as the self-contained cartridge, generally speaking. Not familiar with the Springfield model you refer to but it could very well be a modern adaptation of a concept well over 100 yrs old. I like passive safeties; manual safeties can be troublesome if you don't drill with them on a regular basis.

[Scharfschuetze]

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems to me this refutes all those 'experts' who think the older Model 94's are unsafe because they have no safety.

Quite right Hick. Yet no mechanical device is infallible, so the main safety, as we all know, is still between the ears.

[TXGunNut]

Quite right Hick. Yet no mechanical device is infallible, so the main safety, as we all know, is still between the ears.

Agreed, a mechanical safety is only part of safe gun handling. I'm no expert but I know the 94 has two mechanical safeties, three once the dreaded cross-bolt or tang safety was added. Some folks will argue that the half-cock hammer notch is not a viable safety but that has likely been debated elsewhere ad nauseum.

[Patrick56]

Most of the Luger pistol m/08 does not have a grip safety.

[WebMonkey]

Lemon squeezer

[Walter Laich]

Quite right Hick. Yet no mechanical device is infallible, so the main safety, as we all know, is still between the ears.

exactly what I was thinking as I read this thread.

"If you make something idiot proof, someone will just make a better idiot."