I have seen a guy on YouTube that is putting it out there that you should NEVER modify your carry gun. Especially reducing the trigger pull weight. He says it opens you up for liabilities for your legal defense in self defense with your firearm if you ever had to use it and gives the prosecuting side angles to pursue that your gun was modified with the intent of using it. He says that when you buy a carry gun, you should leave it completely stock. I have my own thoughts on this, but I’m going to leave them out. I want to hear what you folks have to say about this.
It could be used against you. Anything could be used against you, but a factory stock gun is probably harder to use against you than a modified one, and trigger pull is a particularly debated modification to a defensive firearm.
I have changed my opinion and my practices. I now only carry pistols with factory stock triggers. If I can’t shoot it well enough, I get a different one or I practice more, factory triggers are just fine. I used to carry with an Apex in an M&P for quite awhile.
I have also changed my opinion and perspective away from “that’s defensible in court” to “I’d rather that not be something my lawyer needs to defend in court to begin with”
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I was reading that article and also found this article on the same site.
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I, in general, believe that in the the case of an EDC one should keep it as close to right out of the box as possible. Having sat on a jury on a self defense case I can tell you both the Defense and the Prosecution play every angle, every game they can. One take away was, don’t feed the piranha’s they love to feed.
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I’d rather hear what you think based upon the information that you’ve already received. Sound advice is sound advice. The question is, what are you looking to receive, and will you know it when it appears? No pun intended.
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I use to carry an HK and there are different variants of the same model gun but if you can’t find the variant you want you can buy one and switch it to a different variant. What I am saying is you can switch or modify a gun if you can buy the gun you modify, stock. Hope that makes sense. Wondering what you want to do to modify your gun and welcome to the community.
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My opinion is leave the firearm as stock as possible. I had 3.5 connectors in every Glock that I’d owned but that was over 10 years ago and it still left them at about. 5+ pound trigger pull. I don’t carry Glocks any more because the grip angle no longer suits me. I only have a G29 left, and it’s stock. My EDC is normally a Sig 365 with an optic. No modifications. Any other carry guns are also stock. I think in todays environment it’s just one less issue, God forbid you have to use it. Just my thoughts.
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Sights and grips are as far as I’ll go! Other than that, clean it, oil it and maintain its functionality! Similar to your car!
I don’t think you want to draw too much attention to yourself!
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Welcome to the Community @PWPhotoSC. You definitely came to the right place to get suggestions on this topic.
Personally, I like a carry gun with a stock trigger in it. However, my current EDC is a Glock 22 with a Gen 2 Pyramid Trigger installed. Normally, I would not have changed out the trigger, but this is the way that I received it when I won it from the Glock Store. I actually like how stock Glock triggers perform, but this aftermarket one is so much smoother. I do plan to get a different Glock to carry every day, and it will be completely stock.
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It is not really a modification if you modify it to be stock. You are merely changing it to a different variant.
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Personally, I think it depends on the modification. I added talon grips to my G19. That’s it.
Masad Ayoob recounts the story of a guy charged with a crime who swapped out the dust cover on his AR. It cost him $15,000 in attorneys fees to keep it out of court as evidence against him. The dust cover said “you’re F**cked” if I recall correctly.
If you can defend the modification as making the gun safer to use, it’s probably ok. If it can be used against you to indicate that you wanted to hurt someone or had malice, it probably should be avoided.
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Since I have been asked my opinion, here it is. Right now I have several guns that I carry. Which one I carry depends upon where I’m going, how long I will be out and what times I will be out and the amount of people that will be around me. Right now, these are the guns I have that I carry are a custom Wilson Combat commander size 1911 in .45 which is still just as I got it 10 years ago. It is my normal primary carry. A gen 5 Glock 43X MOS that has a Holosun 507k optic and carry mag well. I have also changed the plastic trigger housing pin for a metal one and installed extended controls and a tungsten guide rod and spring. A gen 5 Glock 22 MOS that has a Holosun SCS optic, Trijicon HD X-ray night sights, extended controls, metal pin kit, tungsten guide rod and spring kit and a gen 2 Pyramid trigger that weighs out around 4.5 pounds. I also have a gen 5 Glock 19X that I am doing a little bit to. I plan to have the slide milled and a Holosun SCS mounted on it. I’ve done some extended controls on it, but not all of them. Just the mag release. The only gun that I have that I intend to heavily modify is my gen 5 Glock 34 MOS. I intend to turn it into a straight range gun. It will have full slide work, stippling, match barrel, sights and other stuff done to it. It will never be carried.
I look at it this way. Whatever I can do to a firearm that makes it better, safer and more accurate for me to use for defense the better off I am. If I have a hard time pulling the trigger, it makes me less accurate and endangers other who might be around the subject I might have to defend myself against. It has been proven that the two biggest factors of firearm accuracy in a person’s hands are their grip on the firearm and the trigger pull. If I can have a trigger that makes me more accurate and gives me a higher ability to acquire target with faster and more precise follow up shots, isn’t that a good thing? Now, I’m not saying take a trigger pull down to 1.75-2.5 pounds. That’s competition shooting range or lower. I know some competition shooters and their comp guns normally run 2.5 to 3 pound triggers. One lives near me and his carry gun has the exact same trigger I have in my g22 and his weighs out at 3.5 pounds. He used different springs than I did. Optics allow for faster target acquisition. Changing plastic pins for metal strengthens the parts they hold.
The same with the grip. In a stressful situation, my hands will sweat and the last thing i need is my firearm sliding in my hands compromising my grip on the gun. A loose grip equals compromised accuracy. I do want to have my grip stippled, but because i don’t want it to slide in my hands. Let’s face it, Glocks don’t have the best gripping surface on their grips. They are the smoothest surfaces of all my guns.
That’s my take.
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@PWPhotoSC, Welcome to the family and glad you are here.
I say you should not modify your carry gun.
Prosecutors do not need anymore ammunition against you. Don’t make it easy on them. Yes I agree 100 percent with keeping your gun stock right from the factory.
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This is a link from a previous tread which was discussed by the community. FYI
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I’m going to comment again in regards to a lemon law case I initiated against a car company and why I did what I did to defend it. The car had a bad rear. They changed the transmission, driveshaft and another part but I don’t recall what it was. The car was out of service for over 60 days. I chronologically logged the company’s actions in my letter to the judge. I then appeared in court with photos of cars, that I had restored. The judge asked me if I wrote the letter. I told him yes, and he complimented me on it. He asked me why the photos. I told him that I felt that the company was going to bring a tech in to dispute my claim. To summarize this, I won. The non certified mechanic who restores cars. Will it work on a firearms case? I don’t know.
I’ll get back to my Glocks now. They all had the same 3.5 connector, stock springs and the same Ameriglo sights. My reasoning at the time was that they were all the same. That was my reasoning behind the my modifications. Yes it helped me shoot them better.
Devils advocate: Are you a Glock Armorer? My answer would have been no, but? Are you a licensed Gunsmith? No, but…So your better than Glock, a company that sells x million guns? You see where I’m going with this right. I’m not telling you to change what your doing. You do what you do and I’m good with it, because I get it. But will the average non firearm person get it? That’s where I see the problem. No matter what though, be safe and have a Great Holiday Season. 
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That’s what I like about my MR920 CBT, comes stock with great everything (TTI trigger connector, tritium sights)
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I also have a MR920 Elite. Only things Ive done to it is add a Holosun 507C X2 and a Streamlight TLR-8. No need to do anything else to it.
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I think the purpose or not modifying a gun is to not do something the manufacture doesn’t recommend. You could be making you gun dangerous and that could hurt you in a court of law if the gun is used for self defense.
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