Several people emailed me about The Firearm Blog’s picture of Jerry Miculek’s 627PC. It would appear that his gun has had the locking mechanism disabled, leading to much renewed discussion about the incidence of accidental lock activation.

When the locks first came out there were a few reported cases of locks self-engaging. The wisdom of the internet held that the locks were just fine, that S&W would never knowingly introduce something that would put people at risk, that the reports were fabricated, and so on.

As time wore on it became apparent that the issue was real, but seemed to mostly happen with lightweight guns shooting heavy recoiling loads. Then I started getting reports of lightweight guns shooting normal loads experiencing the problem, followed by the “big boomers” and hunting loads. Most recently I’ve heard first-person accounts of steel guns (all J-frames, so far) shooting sane cartridges having their locks self-engage.

I’ve collected enough of these accounts over the last several years that I simply won’t carry a S&W with a lock. The incidents are numerous enough, and the consequences dire enough, that I simply don’t trust the mechanism. I recommend that all my clients seriously consider carrying a non-lock gun; if you tuned in last week you found that my usual carry revolver was a Ruger, partly because they don’t have such a mechanism.

(Just for the record: I have no financial stake in this debate, as liability issues demand that I do not deactivate a safety device – no matter how questionable – from a gun. I’m not making any money by suggesting that you carry a S&W sans lock.)

-=[ Grant ]=-