Larry J. Nichols
Officers and armed citizens must maintain their defensive firearms to factory standards, with all safety features intact, as they are liable for the weapon’s condition in court.
As an honorably retired law enforcement firearms instructor, armorer and firearms expert witness, it has become abundantly clear to me that the significance of maintaining a defensive handgun to factory specifications has largely become lost on many individuals who carry a personal defense handgun. This has prompted me to share my opinion which is based on my many years of training and experience.
Law enforcement officers and lawfully armed citizens are responsible for the quality and condition of their personally owned or issued defensive firearms. When carrying a handgun as a defensive measure, you have also accepted the liability for that firearm and the responsibility to insure that the weapon is maintained within factory specifications. For the weapon to be court defensible in a criminal or civil trial, all safety features must be present and working as designed by the manufacturer. If involved in a defensive shooting as a law enforcement officer or a legally armed citizen, the firearm you used will become evidence and placed in an evidence locker by the police. The DA (District Attorney) and your defense counsel will likely retain a firearms expert witness to accomplish a comprehensive inspection of the alleged firearm. Having been retained by both district attorneys and defense counsels in criminal and civil trials, I can assure you that said firearm will be completely inspected and documented. The primary importance of the inspection is to see if any modifications to the safety features and trigger system designed by the manufacturer have been removed, altered, deactivated, not functioning as designed, or replaced with aftermarket parts. Any alterations found will be recorded and may be used against you (or for you) in court. You will have to justify in court why the weapon was altered; why the safety deactivated or was not functioning as designed; or why the original components have been replaced with non-factory parts.
Now that you have some idea of what can happen to you in court concerning your defensive handgun, let us look at some of the safety features built into present-day handguns.
SEMIAUTOMATIC PISTOLS
Manual Safeties
Grip Safety: Located on the backstrap of the frame, this prevents the trigger’s rearward movement. The H&K P7 & P13 use a squeeze cocking system. The shooter has to squeeze the front of the grip frame to cock the firing system.
Thumb Safety: Located on the left rear of the frame, some pistols have the thumb safety on both sides of the frame. This prevents the hammer/sear from moving.
Slide Mounted Safety/Decocking Lever: Located on the rear of the slide, some pistols have this lever on both sides which is designed as a manual safety and will safely lower the cocked hammer, preventing the hammer striking the firing pin.
Decocking Lever: Mounted on the left side of the frame, it is designed to safely lower the cocked hammer.
Trigger Safety: Located in the trigger, it is designed to prevent trigger rearward movement.
Passive Safeties
Firing Pin Safety: Located in the slide, it is designed to prevent movement of the firing pin until the trigger is pulled fully to the rear.
Drop Safety: Located inside the frame, it is designed to prevent the pistol from firing until the trigger is pulled fully to the rear.
Disconnector: Located in the frame, it is designed to prevent the pistol from firing when the slide and barrel are not locked together. It also prevents the semiautomatic pistol from firing full-auto.
Trigger Weight
With standard sear engagement and standard springs, trigger pulls of four pounds (minimum) to 7½ pounds (maximum) are typical results. Trigger pull weights of less than four pounds increase the danger of a negligent discharge during a high stress incident. The trigger pull weight of a defensive handgun should never be below factory minimum specifications (four pounds) to be considered court defensible. Installing aftermarket trigger systems in a defensive handgun will likely present significant legal challenges in court and is NOT recommended by this author.
Internal Key Lock
A distinctive key is necessary to lock or unlock the handgun’s fire control system.
DOUBLE-ACTION REVOLVERS
Manual and Passive Safeties
The safeties listed below are for the Smith & Wesson® family of double-action revolvers. However, Colt® and Ruger®, as well as other quality double-action revolvers, have similar systems. Modern double-action revolvers do not have manual safeties. There are several passive safeties designed into the moving parts of the firing system.
Rebound
Included are the rebound seat on the hammer; the hammer seat on the rebound slide; and the 17 coil rebound spring. These parts are designed to move the trigger forward faster than the cocked hammer can move forward; preventing the revolver from firing, should the cocked hammer slip off the trigger.
Hammer Block
The hammer block is held in place by an alignment pin attached to the rebound slide and designed to prevent the revolver from firing should the hammer pivot pin fail for any reason.
Trigger Weight
Single-action trigger weight is designed to prevent the revolver from firing should the trigger of a cocked revolver rotate on the trigger finger. The single-action trigger weight must be heavier than the total weight of the loaded revolver. Minimum trigger weight is three pounds for a .38 Special and 3½ pounds for the .357 Magnum. The double-action trigger weight is a safety and will typically range from ten pounds to 14 pounds. For safety reasons, the defensive revolver should always be fired in the double-action mode.
Magnum Hand
The Magnum hand has a hardened steel pin attached to it and the hand is the part which rotates the cylinder. The Magnum hand is affixed to the trigger with a torsion spring. The hand pin is designed to prevent the cylinder from opening due to heavy recoiling energy.
Magnum Center Pin and Spring
The center pin is in the center of the cylinder assembly and is designed to prevent the cylinder from opening due to heavy recoil.
Internal Key Lock
It is the same as the semiautomatic pistol.
To be court defensible, all defensive handguns should be inspected, adjusted or repaired to factory specifications by a factory certified armorer each year. Inspections and repairs on defensive handguns should then be documented and filed for your records. Every little detail about your defensive handgun will be examined by attorneys and an expert witness and you will have to defend every feature. Refrain from adding aggressive graphics or messages to your firearm or gear – you want to project the image of a responsible, peace minded individual. I also recommend that you carry the same ammunition in your defensive handgun which your local police or county sheriff issues to their officers and deputies. That’s one less detail you’ll have to defend. Changing the sights and/or stocks, as they are properly called (not grips), can work in your favor in the eyes of the jury. Upgrading the sight will improve your hit probability and improving the gripping surface on the handgun will improve your control of the handgun.
As a retired law enforcement rangemaster/armorer, my everyday carry handgun is a “box stock,” entirely black pistol, except for the upgraded sight and I carry the same ammunition in my personal defense pistol which the local county sheriff issues to their deputies.
Avoiding Modifications
I do believe that replacing the factory springs and installing some impractical aftermarket trigger system in your defensive pistol is the deepest rabbit hole in which a defendant can place himself. I strongly recommend you maintain the factory trigger system in your defensive handgun. Frequent live and dry fire practice helps break in the trigger, making it smoother and easier to pull over time. My defensive pistols’ trigger weights are heavier than the factory’s minimum weight of five pounds and lighter than the factory’s maximum trigger weight of eight pounds. I personally will not reduce the factory trigger weight below minimum and I certainly will not install any aftermarket trigger system in any firearm intended for personal defense.
We must train for the violent act to survive it and we must also train to survive the legal system’s course of action which will surely follow the altercation. A good start would be to refrain from doing anything which would help the legal system take away your freedom and/or your money. Modifying the fire control system on your defensive handgun will be especially difficult to justify during a legal proceeding, where human emotions get involved.
Violent confrontations are measured in seconds, while the legal court procedures will be measured in years – three to five years for criminal trials and three to five years for civil trials. This represents a significant amount of time away from your loved ones and a financial burden of thousands of dollars.
Larry J. Nichols retired in 2011 after 27 years of honorable service as the Senior Rangemaster/Armorer for the Burbank (CA) Police Department. He served five years with the Orange County (CA) Sheriff’s Department as their Firearms Instructor/Armorer before moving to Burbank, California.
Larry has over 40 years of experience as a professional firearms instructor, with over 31 years as a law enforcement lethal, less lethal and less than lethal force instructor. He is internationally noted for his innovative and pioneering work in the planning, development and implementation of realistic law enforcement firearms training programs. He enjoys receiving feedback from his readers and he can be contacted at gunnyretired@gmail.com.
