Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Safe handgun handling - finger on trigger

I'm reading the Glock book by Paul Barrett, and I came across this passage in the section about the lawsuits filed against Glock by people who shot themselves with their guns:



I'm a little younger than some of you guys, so maybe some of you older folks can enlighten me. Is that passage accurate?

I wonder if these same people suing Glock are also suing lumber companies because they fell down the stairs. When I was younger, there wasn't such a strict prohibition regarding having one's finger on the trigger. It also seemed that for all the accidents that happened, people largely chalked them up as "dumbass did some dumbass stuff." Now we have to parse it all out, because "don't do dumbass stuff" isn't enough of a rule, I guess.

It would seem crazy to walk around with a handgun drawn and finger on the trigger especially during a stressful situation. I could see this being true though...

Most knowledgeable shooters recognize the difference between a double action trigger requiring significant travel with, at best, over 6 lb. of force, and a single action trigger requiring significantly less movement and effort.
But it is a lot easier, smarter, and safer learning and ingraining into your gun handling one rule as opposed to remembering what kind of trigger you are dealing with in the moment.

Makes perfect sense to me to have your finger lightly in contact with the trigger face of a double action revolver (e.g., Colt or S&W) if immediate trouble is anticipated. That's one of the safety features of the double action revolver trigger, i.e., unless it's cocked, you pretty much have to intend to fire it for it to go off. No way I'd do that on a Glock, though. Too short a distance for the trigger to travel. Finger stays straight till you're ready to fire.

Yes it is accurate.

"Finger straight and off the trigger" was not gospel until Jeff Cooper publicized his four safety rules and they became prominent everywhere. Including LE circles.

Lots of law enforcement training predated those rules.

In 1983 I went to the academy of one of the largest agencies in southern California. There was certainly no one recommending fingers on the trigger of our model 66's at that time. As an agency we transitioned to the Glock model 22 in 1991 and we all went to a one-week semi-auto training course. Once again no one ever considered having us keep our fingers on the trigger. It was always alongside the frame until ready to shoot. Not sure where the author of that article got his information.

I dont think cops running around with drawn guns was a common in the past.

They rarely pulled a gun unless they were going to use it.
Now, they pull it out without much provocation.


Good and bad to that.
But it has an impact on finger on the trigger and other safety issues.

LOL

We pulled our guns all the time. There were just NO video cameras around to record it.

And then you will jerk the trigger on the 1st shot, guaranteed, in trying to make up time.

MM

That hasn't been my experience.

Shoot more, in various scenarios...................you'll find out if you're honest with yourself.

It's not really a natural movement from A to B.

MM

I'm no handgunner, but playing around with the guys that damn near live in a shoot house up at Ft Chaffee, had one of them bolt a small laser sight on the rail of my p226, empty pistol practice, with pistol in hand and ready to dry fire moving through a darkened room, they scared the chit out of me, I fired, they recorded, that gotdamn red line on a wall 14 feet away was four feet wide! yea, I yanked the shlt out of that trigger.................and they all laughed! all in good fun, but very telling nonetheless.

Douglasfir: I can only add this - I went through the 4 month long Police Academy for a department with 1,150 officers back in the late 1960's.
We (the police officers guild) owned the large police range and site of the academy at the time.
We shot 50 rounds apiece each week day of the academy.
IF... one of the three range officer/instructors behind us on the firing line saw a finger in a trigger guard of our revolvers before the commence fire order was given, that instructor would strike us in the ear, HARD, with a cupped open hand!
This hurt - and errant trigger placement soon ceased amongst us all.
By the way we were never offered or asked to wear "ear protection" back then - our ears rang/hurt so much that some officer/cadets began bringing cigarette filters to stuff in our ears to keep them from ringing the rest of the day.
Times have changed!
But last I heard (23 - 24 years ago) the academy recruit/officers on that department were taught to keep their fingers along side the frame of their Glocks as they waited/decided to fire their pistol.
That system is indeed a "tad" slower to get off the first shot but its intent is/was to avoid the startle response and subsequent unintended trigger pull.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Thanks everyone for the info. It's interesting to learn about the different attitudes (some) people had in the past.