In my experience, people’s attitudes towards gun safeties depends on who taught them to shoot. One of my earliest memories of shooting is being told that external safeties cannot be relied upon. Consequently, I don’t use them very often (preferring muzzle control and trigger finder control instead).

Folks from the military, where the use of a safety is emphasized, frequently have the opposite opinion to me. Back when the Glock was introduced many law enforcement agencies switched to the safety-less Glock. Recently I have noticed that many departments are switching away from Glocks to polymer pistols, such as the S&W M&P, that do have external safeties (and don’t require pulling the trigger to disassemble). Glock does make a pistol with an external safety, the Glock 17S, but it is not available to the general public.

A company called SureDraw has produced a “momentary” Glock safety. The safety device replaces the  Slide Cover Plate at the rear of the slide. It consists of a button that activates the safety only when it is depressed. Unless the operator is actively pushing the button, the safety is disengaged. This means it does not compromise the “always-ready” feature of external-safety-less pistols. The below diagram demonstrates …

The safety can be pre-ordered for $29.95 from the company’s website.

Do you think this is something that police departments will use?