I’m skeptical
But it’s not impossible:
Theres a pin in the triggers of Glocks that keeps the safety in place, and the pin had actually worked itself out to the side of the gun to the point that it was sticking out far enough that when he stuck (the gun) in the holster, the pin caught the edge of the holster and pulled the trigger back
Someone who knows more about Glock innards want to weight in?
May 30th, 2018 at 7:03 pm
Possible that the pin pushed the trigger back but what depressed the safety? I’m guessing booger hook malfunction
May 30th, 2018 at 7:05 pm
Not a fan of Glocks, purely on aesthetic grounds. But: That’s absurd.
They’re talking about the pin that forms the pivot point for the trigger safety? They’re saying that this worked its way out to one side, so far, that it protruded past the blocky trigger guard and snagged on something?
No, the guy had a negligent discharge. Glock should sue the shit out of this guy for making that claim.
However: I know very little about Glocks. I’m hoping someone knowledgeable weighs in on this, to see if my guess might be right.
May 30th, 2018 at 7:33 pm
Uh…err, the pin for the the stupid little trigger-safety-thingy, if that’s what we’re talking about, is a LOT shorter that the width of the frame. The pin traverses only the width of the trigger itself and no more, so…HIGHLY unlikely to impossible. Maybe if it came nearly all the way out, but still hanging on, it could reach beyond the width of the frame and snag, and maybe still hang on to the trigger enough to pull it back. So I won’t give that a zero percent chance of happening. Just very close to zero, and strange things do in fact happen.
On the other hand, there is the actual trigger pin. If that were to come out far enough, maybe the trigger could go cattywompus enough to let the striker go, but again, VERY unlikely given the amount of travel required of the trigger bar to actually let go of the striker. Besides, those pins don’t come out all on their own. At least mine don’t– They require some pretty deliberate force. For example I can’t just push a pin out using a pencil or the tip of a ball-point pen. I gots ta pound on ’em a bit, using a pin punch; NOT just using my hands with the punch. Maybe if you’ve been dicking around with your pistol a lot, having taken the pins out multiple times already, they’d loosten up after a bit. Maybe. I’ve never fucked around with my Glocks THAT much in 24 years of carrying and firing them. Come to think of it I’ve maybe had a trigger out once, or maybe never. I own Glocks for the purpose of NOT fucking with them, but rather just using them, so I guess that means we need a serial “Glock fucker-wither” to chime in.
May 30th, 2018 at 7:42 pm
Update; the Glock I have on my desk right now, a 20SF, has the trigger safety axel pin in a blind hole, meaning you can push it in but you can’t push it out. If they’re all configured that way then there’s no fucking around with it to be done. Unless you’re real dumb. That’s NOT to say that not ONE of them in several million could EVER work its way out.
Nor would the safety pin, necessarily, NEED to come out past the edge of the frame before it could snag on something.
So I’ll upgrade it to “plausable if unlikely, but for shit’s sake, Man”.
May 30th, 2018 at 7:48 pm
One possible fix would be a very minor re-design of the trigger & safety, and/or frame, such that, if the pin were sticking out at all, the trigger would be blocked thereby from traveling back far enough to let go of the striker.
You guys at Glock can send me a check when you get around to it. You’re welcome, and thank you.
May 30th, 2018 at 7:48 pm
I am a retired federal civil service WG-6610-10 smallarms inspector/armorer and I had 240 Glocks (combination G19/G22) in inventory.
That pin is a pressed in, one way or ‘blind pin’ that forms the axis for the trigger safety. If that pin actually worked it’s own way out far enough to be pushed by the holster, the trigger safety would have fallen out and there would be nothing to stop the trigger from being pulled if the pin ‘snagged’.
Since I haven’t had eyes on the gun in question, I’d have to give the dope the benefit of reasonable doubt and acquit him of jiggery pokery gunsmithing.
But I would dearly want to get my hands on it.
May 30th, 2018 at 8:33 pm
Possible but highly unlikely.
1) I believe the trigger safety pin is in a blind hole just like the trigger bar retention pin. If so, it isn’t just going to drift out. Unless he put in an aftermarket trigger as most of them are not designed that way.
2) You can’t rotate the trigger safety with it’s own axis pin. So the pin would have to drift out so far that the trigger safety could be pushed completely out of position. That’s really unlikely.
May 30th, 2018 at 10:26 pm
Thos story seems unlikely in that Glock has sold millions of them since the mid-eighties and I’ve never heard of this happening in all those years. Including in torture tests. If Chuck Taylor couldn’t, make this happen in tens of thousands of rounds thru an early G19,I have trouble accepting the scenario. I’ve got a few Glocks. Not many. But my experience is they are highly durable and trouble free. You do have to clean them now and then. But my last purchase was an almost new Gen 3 G19 from a pawn shop. The original owner was “crafty”. He hand stippled the grip, likely with an electronics soldering iron. Not bad,good price discount ;), gives a nice hold. He also installed a cheap extended mag release that I discovered after about six shots, would cause the mag to drop on every trigger pull. I fixed that. But the darn thing won’t pattern. Doesn’t matter the ammo. The barrel is matched and there doesn’t seem to be any mods to the slide but it shoots all over the place. I hate to spend hundreds on an after market barrel if I don’t have to. Any ideas?
May 31st, 2018 at 9:22 am
What Lyle said. The claim is BS. #doesnotworkthatway
May 31st, 2018 at 10:44 am
Jeffersonian, what an interesting problem. Find a friend with a similar Glock, and start swapping parts one at a time in & out of yours – barrel, spring, slide, frame.
If no obvious cause arises, you are in the realm of multifactor analysis and require design of experiment techniques of swapping two parts at a time. I’m betting the frame-to-barrel contact has been upgefucht by the previous owner, but who knows. There is a reason it ended up in the pawn shop, after all.
May 31st, 2018 at 11:20 am
Methinks twas an aftermarket trigger bar.
May 31st, 2018 at 12:01 pm
If it was an aftermarket trigger in it I would believe it more. There are a couple of reports of that happening to some of them and video of a 43 with a Zev dry firing on reholster out there.
May 31st, 2018 at 5:26 pm
@Miles; I think you nailed it. Highly, highly unlikely, but probably not 100% impossible. That safety, as you say, would have be inoperable, if not missing. Also; the leverage at the safety pin location, so close to the trigger pivot, means that a LOT of force would be required, AND the safety pin would need to have chewed its way into the frame a bit beforehand (at least on the Model 20, which is the only one I have had a chance to carefully inspect with regard to the issue). It’d be hard to make that incident happen if you tried.
MattCFII; Aftermarket trigger? That brings up a whole ‘nother can of worms. Can’t say I’ve ever closely inspected any of them.
May 31st, 2018 at 10:15 pm
If Tam wonders back over, she has a decent amount of experience with a few different varieties than me. I’ve stuck to the Overwatch Precision ones exclusively since they are as know quantities as they get and they specifically do some of the mildest tuning (some of others can start to pre-engage the firing pin safety to reduce takeup), definitely not what I want) Apex would probably be the only other one I would consider.
The Zev was one of the first aftermarket triggers too but a little more extreme.
Even then it surprised me it was theirs in the video, most of the reports I’ve heard about trigger safety pins coming out are fly-by-night eBay products, especially ones where you mount their trigger shoe to your existing trigger bar.
May 31st, 2018 at 10:20 pm
The Zev issue:
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2017/12/06/glock-triggered-holstered/
May 31st, 2018 at 10:43 pm
Sorry for the triple post, here’s a couple of Tam’s articles on aftermarket Glock triggers:
https://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2016/07/triggered.html -shows the specific 3 brands (not including the generic eBay ones) I’ve been talking about. Overwatch Precision and Apex = Good, as you’ll see in the next one.
https://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2017/09/triggered.html -Here Tam uses a SCD (Gadget) to talk about that firing pin engagement hanky panky that is going on with the Zev and why she doesn’t use it any more. Note that Tau Group now has a SCD that doesn’t sit slightly proud for specifically the Overwatch Precision in mind. I believe they have something about the it is the only one they recommend.
Back to the incident in question, with Tam’s photos in first article you can get an idea of the trigger safety pin too on these.
May 31st, 2018 at 11:51 pm
So let’s say for the sake of argument that the safety retaining pin did in fact work its way out far enough to snag and cause a discharge.
It’s STILL a negligent discharge in my mind, because you have to be pretty profoundly negligent not to notice that thing sticking out well before it becomes a problem. And BTW, I don’t believe this scenario. I call booger hookery.
June 1st, 2018 at 4:14 pm
2ABill:
If you are a left-hander, you might notice the protruding pin, as it only comes out on the left side, so your trigger finger might encounter it. The probably missing safety lever that sits in the middle of the trigger might be noticed, but that might not fall out until right before you holster it for the final, noisy, time.
Most people don’t do such an intimate exam of their carry gun each time it gets holstered. That would require pointing it all over the scenery to get a good look at all the external bits. Trust me, the first time you do that in a location with other people around, you will hear about it.