July/August 1978 - American Handgunner

The New PistolcraftAt Jeff Cooper'sAPI Training Center.rhe American Pistol Institute is now acceptingications for training of police, military anc8 lan students (with proper credentials) at theiew 120-acre training center. Basic courseeaches you to shoot carefully and quickly; to hi!multiple and moving targets; to move cwj3;y to maintain continuity of action; to re;pond properly to the une ected; and muctnore. Unique, proven teaching method quicwmoarts the decisive skills of modern defensiwiktolcraft.FOR 8-PAGE BROCHURE, SEND $1 to:The American Pistol InstituteBox 401 -E, Paulden, AZ 863341500 CHRONOCRAPVELOCITY TEST YOUR RELOADScomplete systemsWRITE FOR FREETEST REPORT:CUSTOM CHRONOGRAPH Co.MODERN - OBSOLETE - FOREIGIDOMESTIC - MILITARY - SPORTIN(WORLDS LAHGEST SUPPLIERm.",.mmI"l m .Box AH78, West Hurley, New York 12491Automitic -No FederalAC,m.In the meantime, I have to reverse myprevious position. The magazine disconnectorsafety is obviously good for somethingbesides an unusual tie tack. Thepresent score as far as I can determine isDisconnector Safeties 2, Non-Disconnector-Safeties0; and theory or notheory, I've got to go with what is happeningon the street.I've gone so far as to include it in thecurriculum of my Weapons and ChemicalAgents class at the state college whereI'm on the police science staff as an associateprofessor. Several of my students,all in-service full time police officers,carry automatics; I teach them that whenthey're caught up in what I call the OnionField Syndrome, and a street punk hasthem at gunpoint and demands theirweapon and they decide to comply, theyshould wrap their fingers around the butt,conspiciously avoiding the trigger, andsurreptitiously slip the tip of the little fingerunder the magazine.They can now easily hit the magazinerelease button. The little finger catchesthe magazine before it ejects, and makessure that it stays in the gun. If it came allthe way out, the obvious attempt to unloadthe piece might enrage and provokethe would-be cop killer holding the officerat gunpoint. This way, the clip comesdown just far enough to stay in the gun,and activate the Disconnector Safety.If the pistol is an unaltered Smith orBrowning HP, it won't go off at all. If it'sa Colt, the suspect is only going to get oneround off, which can still make some difference.Interestingly, there is a goodchance that a punk who is going to kill thecop after disarming him will use the cop'sown gun, partly as a gesture of contemptand partly to keep his own weapon"clean" evidence-wise,In a situation like that, the magazinedisconnector safety makes a whole lot ofsense. And we can't forget the novicesthis device was created for in the firstplace. In my state recently, a young manaccidentally killed himself while plinkingwith his newly purchased .45 auto. Hewasn't into guns. Some friends of his,equally unfamiliar with weapons, cameup to him while he was shooting. Theytold him the gun made them nervous, andasked him to empty it. He obliginglypulled out the magazine."Are you sure it's empty?" someoneasked."Sure I'm sure," he answered with thetragic confidence of the uninformed, andto demonstrate, he put the gun to hishead and pulled the trigger.After the police and the medical examinersremoved the body and scraped upthe last particles of brain matter, theylearned that the individual had justbought the gun and had not attempted toget any instruction with it. He apparentlythought that pulling the slide back justcocked the hammer. and that the null ofthe trigger somehow brought the roundup under the firing pin from themagazine. He wouldn't have accidentallyblown his brains out with a stock model39, no matter how careless he was with it,after taking the clip out. But the 1911 .45auto is a safe weapon only with a trainedand conscientious person, which is whythe Army doesn't permit soldiers to carryone with a round in the chamber.Since the average policeman may nothave had proper training with hissidearm, the magazine disconnectorsafety as on the Smith & Wesson 9 mm'smakes a lot of sense. It also has itspurpose with the expert officer who maybe overpowered and have his gun takenaway.I've reversed my position until I seesome different evidence. In fact, I wish Icould put a magazine disconnector safetyinto the Colt .45 auto I carry on duty.For years, I agreed with the rest of thegun writers on this, and the theoreticalarguments still hold true. I'm not challenginganyone personally, but there are acouple of field officers out there - oneinUtah, one in Illinois, and maybe otherswho have testimony that beats hell out ofall our collective technical expertise.They're alive, because they carriedSmith & Wesson police automatics thathad magazine disconnectorsafeties, and they'd be dead otherwise^, . .IMPROVE ACCURACYTested by H.P. White LaboratoriesUS. PatentMolded plasticand alsoHEM WOOD i6Engineered countours make your hand partof your gun.The best lor Lawmen, Combat, Field -Target.Also - Cartridge boxes, powder funnel,primer fbper.FTTZ P.O. Box 49687 L . A .. California 90049U. S. A.AMERICAN HANDGUNNER -, JULYIAUGUST 1978