Glocks, Cops and The Media
The media gets a lot of gun facts wrong (like stating the Assault Weapons Ban of 94 bans automatic weapons when it doesn’t). Publicola delves into some of that in this fine piece about the LAPD going to Glocks. Most of the media disinformation comes from the cops in this article.
And the cops were badmouthing Sigs, which are the official sidearm of SayUncle. Of course the cops were either lying or ignorant:
San Fernando police officers traded in their Sig Sauers two months ago after a colleague accidentally dropped his half-cocked weapon in the parking lot and it discharged, striking him in the head and killing him.
Sigs do not have a half cock. Sigs have a firing pin block that is engaged when the pistol is decocked using the decocking lever. Sig even issued warnings (for older models) stating never to manually decock the arm (i.e., thumb on hammer, pull trigger, use thumb to ease hammer down) and to always use the decocker to ensure the firing pin block engages.
On newer models, this isn’t an issue I don’t think. I’m guessing this policeman manually decocked an older pistol and dropped it right on the hammer (that’s the only way it is physically possible). or he accidentally shot himself and that’s not something you tell people a policeman did.
July 17th, 2003 at 2:25 pm
I’ve always liked the Sig and shot a friend’s 226 in early (wayyy before IDPA) concealed carry matches. The first (double action) shot was always very accurate and the second (single action) shot was usually very quick (almost an AD) and worked great for quick double taps, all subsequent shots were quick and easy to shoot very accurately – These matches always had one stage shooting bowling pins at ranges from 15 yards to 50 yards and even in 9mm the Sig performed quite well knocking the pins over.
The guy who ran this thing was an old timer type who had a glorious sweeping draw to clear his overcoat (and this was at Schofield Barracks on Oahu) before presenting his weapon, a cocked and locked 1911 in .45 of course.
In later years Sig lost their luster with me when the decided to sell only single stack pistols to “civilians” (I don’t know if this is still true) and when a local cop brought his duty Sig in .45 ACP to a match and while shooting he had at least one stoppage on every stage and this was with department issued duty ammo.
July 17th, 2003 at 2:31 pm
I used to live at schofield barracks when i was a wee lad.
To my knowledge (since i have one) sig does sell double stack mags.
I have had three sigs total (226, 229 – both in 9mm and a 220).
The 226 and 220 each had well over 7,000 rounds put through them and never jammed once.
my 229 has had about 5,000 rounds through it and it jammed once. THat jam was due to an after market magazine i purchased. When the round chambered, it somehow locked the mag spring down and thus jammed. I still have that mag but have yet to use it since and only purchase factory mags. Oh, and i have 5 of those evil high capacity magazines. Those extra 3 shots make me a psychopath.
July 24th, 2003 at 3:45 pm
I have a Glock model 20 in 10mm. Love the cartridge, but the gun is ugly as sin…
July 24th, 2003 at 11:56 pm
I retired from plice work last year – 38 years worth. Almost from the first day of my career, I knew enough about my duty pistol to NOT make a mistake in describing a condition of the pistol that could not exist. Most police officers know their weapons (pistols, shotguns, rifles, batons, chemical sprays, or whatever else is authorized by their departments) well enough to NOT use a term for a weapon that can not exist. If, as reported, the officers did make the comment about “half-cocked” then they went off half-cocked (pun intended). This sounds more like something a less-than-knowledgable non-gun person would say. Does the article cite specific police officers with this comment?
July 25th, 2003 at 9:00 am
The article states the quote above. It is implied they got the info from the police but not absolutely certain.