Quote:
Originally Posted by ganstaman
Does the safety really mean nothing, or do you mean that it should never matter because relying on it means you've messed up something else?
Also, he's my cousin's cousin (I think he's actually my cousin's step-cousin or half-cousin or something). Don't make him sound related to me.
The safety is absolutely irrelevant to cleaning, because like will said, step 1 when cleaning a weapon involves removing the magazine and locking the slide to the rear.
Locking the slide to the rear serves two purposes, firstly, it ejects a chambered round if there is one and secondly it absolutely disables the weapon.
No gun can fire with the slide locked to the rear, doesn't matter whether it's a semi auto pistol, semi auto rifle, bolt action rifle, automatic shotgun or pump shotgun, if you lock the slide to the rear the gun CANNOT fire. If its a revolver, you simply open the cylinder and the gun can't fire.
In general firearms handling, the safety is still damn near irrelevant because you're doing something wrong if you're relying on the safety.
The only situation I can think of would be a soldier or cop in a combat situation who ends up shooting himself in the foot in a situation where his rifle stops functioning in combat and he has no choice but to click the safety on and transition to a sidearm and the rifle goes off while aimed down on a sling.
Other than that if you have a negligent discharge and blame the safety failing you did something else dumb beforehand.