Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by conartist6 306 days ago
You're kidding me right? I thought guns were at least somewhat safe in general but putting the trigger safety on the trigger is...

I'm used to the kind of engineering where the goal is not to kill people I guess...

2 comments

I believe you may be confusing the type of safeties that block even intentional firings with safeties that try to block unintended firings (such as from drops or other mechanical stress). Pistols have multiple levels of safeties involved.

A trigger safety is meant to ensure that the trigger must be intentionally pulled (as opposed to moving during an impact) for the firing pin to be able to release and hit cartridge primer.

The 1911 famously has a grip safety, which needs to be depressed for the trigger to move. This is to try to ensure someone has to be gripping it with intent to fire, for it to be able to do so. While much safer than other pistols at the time, 100+ years later the design is relatively flawed, and isn’t truly drop safe, as the firing pin can still move.

The purpose of a safety on the trigger is to prevent the trigger from moving due to inertia if it is dropped. There are many different safety mechanisms on guns, this is just one, for one specific case.

Sig has good engineering videos where they walk through many of the mechanisms on the M17/18/320.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPKMu47uWXQ