PSA, if you have a safety, TRAIN WITH IT

So I came across this gem of a reply on facebook when discussing the black hawk holster recall.

My reply:
Public Service Announcement: If you’re not practicing to disengage your safety as part of your firearm presentation, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Imagine a life and death situation and your safety is on, but you havent trained to disengage the safety as a part of your routine. It won’t be muscle memory. You will forget. And that mistake could cost you your life.

Either train with the safety on every single draw stroke and presentation or get a gun without a safety.

Be armed. Be trained. Be Alpha.
www.alphakoncepts.com

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My finger is the safety on mine, but that is smart for those who do have a safety.

Hey @AlphaKoncepts, didn’t black hawk have a previous recall of some sort? I don’t remember now.
It seems like my range (if not mistaken) does not allow people to draw from that brand of holster.

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Yep, and we’ve discussed it a few times on here. When you train don’t give yourselves any “cheats” because the only person you are cheating is yourself and it may cost you dearly.

My regular carry gun has a safety on it and every time I train, I make sure the safety is on every single draw whether live fire at the range or dry fire at home. When I use my SIRT pistol, I actually simulate taking the safety off, in order to keep my OODA loop straight/consistent.

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Yes, black hawk just recently announced a recall of one of their newer holster models. It’s not serpa. Blackhawk Serpa is probably the one your range has banned, alot of people hate serpa. Alot of accidents due to improper training with that holster.

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Always train with the safety. (If your gun has one).

I get a kick watching a co worker who also likes 1911’s. Every time I handle one, I check to make sure it is not loaded, and before I set it down, I put the safety on. He always tries to open the slide, and pauses for a few seconds before he realizes the safety is on. I suspect he does not train with the safety.

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I used to have a Sig P238 as an off-duty/backup weapon. SO policy and training required that the weapon ALWAYS had a round chambered, for weapons that had a safety the safety was always engaged unless shooting and decocked if it was a DA and had a decocker. During training, our range instructors would be on you like white on rice if you didn’t follow these rules. I know because I got my butt chewed a few times for not decocking.

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Many years ago I recall a video of an officer on dash cam video who drew his firearm and it wouldn’t shoot. tried two or three times pulling the trigger before he realized the safety was on. They interviewed him and the reason he gave was, “At the range we would draw our guns, and disengage our safeties. Then we would qualify and put our safeties back on. We never trained with the safety.” I saw this video on tv before I became an instructor. I have tried a few times to find the video on the internet and can not find it.

But we can and should learn from the mistakes of others. I now spend a good amount of time watching cctv and dash cam videos. This one particular video was like a red pill for me and woke me up to the phenomena of training scars. We’ve all had mile stones in our life which caused us to pause, this video is one of those which forever changed the way i think.

If someone comes to my class with a safety and or decocker they are gonna run those babies until they get tired of hearing me yell “Safety on!” And when someone comes to one of my classes with a safety, I pay a little more attention to them because I know from experience they likely will get lazy.

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