In November, a starry-eyed professor postulated that the first cartridge in every police officer’s gun should be a blank.
Had the prof done the slightest bit of research, he would have learned that blanks won’t cycle the slide of a semiautomatic service pistol, leaving the gun “jammed” after the first futile loud noise. To make an auto pistol work with blanks for TV and movies, the gun has to be altered in such a way that it can no longer safely fire live ammunition. In a situation where you are on the defensive and have to shoot or die in an instant, loading a defensive weapon with blanks is not only spectacularly stupid, it can be fatally stupid.
In December, some rocket scientist decides the safest way to identify your target before you fire is by pressing your trigger…to activate gun-mounted white light what-could-possibly-go-wrong/ . The first prototype I saw like this was 25 years ago that the inventor had planted on a Glock, leaving the shooter a startle-twitch away from shooting anything in the light beam that surprised him. We laughed at it then. It’s better to laugh than to cry now, a quarter century later.
And, at SHOT in January, we saw a resurgence of a trigger that fires the gun once each time you press it…and again as soon as you take your finger off! It’s an idea that has been around for a while. The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives has thus far let that skate with the maker’s argument that it’s only one pull of the trigger, and nothing in the legal definitions EXPLICITLY bans a shot firing when the trigger finger is removed therefrom (a/k/a “release trigger”). I am not sure how long it will be before the Bureau changes its mind on that, but I for one don’t want to be the test case. Yeah, I know: “because fun.” Still, a firearm that discharges when you take your finger OFF the trigger after firing an intentional shot is far enough away from a normal “manual of arms” that it strikes me as an accident waiting to happen.
How many things do YOU think can go wrong with the above?
I see *something* happening, Mas: An increase of your court time as you are called in for the defense of anyone using one of these firearms in self-defense.
I can see the same brainiacs who think blanks should be the first round in LE firearms bringing lawsuits against civilians for firearms with “machine gun triggers” installed, because said civilians wanted to use more force than was necessary for “common sense self-defense”. Mark my words…
What happens when someone invents a trigger that fires once on the pull, and five times on release? Ten?
If I remember right the line is drawn at firing more than one shot per operation of the “big legal word for trigger”. Just like a release trigger on a trap gun to combat flinch, it doesn’t matter if you pull it or release it, each pull or release is one operation of the mechanism and you only get one free shot per operation.
Whoever is selling that needs to find a new legal counsel.
Police should go back to carrying revolvers loaded to reflect most departments’ escalation of force policies. The first shot should be a loud blank giving off pink and lavender colored sparkles. If a second round is needed, it will be a soft rubber bullet at 300 fps to sting the suspect a little to let him/her know the cops are not kidding around. The third chamber will contain a small bean ball projectile to show the police are really serious. The final three rounds would be loaded with “Green” non-lead, non-expanding humane bullets which hopefully will not be fatal to the criminal(s). We should strive to be a more gentle and peaceful society to help those who turned to crime not because of their fault, but because they had bad childhoods.
That first cartridge being a blank was supposed to be published on April 1.
The fire on release is grossly bad, another ” just because it can be done, doesn’t make it a good idea.” Devices that work counter-intuitively cause deaths.
Why not make the initial round shoot out a flag saying “Bang!”? I have heard of an electronic trigger that fired on release but that was Olympic free pistol (or maybe air pistol). That being said, I don’t think it worked because of safety issues.
Monumental stupidity.
Even allowing for human factors Dr. Lewinsky discusses such as recognition of hits, disabling, etc., every shot should be intentional. Every. Last. Shot.
If the last shot was sufficient and the cops arrive demanding that you drop the gun, what are you supposed to do now?
Do these idiots sit around in a room doing tequila shots and come up with these dumbass idea’s ?
Good God !!! I think I’ll go put my rose colored glasses back on and think happy thoughts.
Thank God for common sense folks like you Mas to save us from these future Darwin Award winners.
This is what happens when non-gun people start dreaming up solutions to create the ultimate “fool-proof” weapon. I think Jeff Cooper said it best (and I quote): “The safe operation of a weapon is a matter of the brain of the user – not of switches, gadgets and arrangements”.
@TOM606
Nah, even a revolver is too advanced to suit the gun-grabbers. We need to follow Joe Biden’s advice and fall back to the double-barrel except, for police use, in pistol form (AKA Howdah Pistol). It’s like W.W. Greener said in his book “Modern Breech-Loaders (1871)”:
“To the subject matter under the heading ‘Double-barrel Breech-loading Pistols’, we refer those who are in search of a good and reliable weapon, for war purposes or for hunting dangerous game – as there can be no doubt that two certain shots are better than six uncertain ones.”
Ah, the more things change, the more they stay the same!
It makes me wonder what these “Rocket Surgeons” use for brains. There should be a “Special” padded cell for someone so stupid. Starry eyed my butt!
I’ll use a .357 225gr JHP in a revolver. Old fashioned but proven over many decades.
This, I know is not optimum for many others but as the old police
sergeant told the victim lady, “Get a gun, learn how to use it, take it everywhere you go, you will know when to use it.”
RonS mentioned release triggers on trap guns. I used to shoot trap competitively and have seen many release triggers on shotguns. For those poor souls who love trap shooting and are plagued with a flinch (after thousands of rounds the brain says – no more – intermittently), a release trigger allows them to continue their trap shooting.
Any gun with a release trigger sitting in the rack at a trap range needs to marked as such so no one picks it up by mistake (many competitors use same/similar model shotguns).
Imagine the impending disaster should someone pick up the wrong gun by mistake which doesn’t fire when they pull the trigger. Then as they un-mount the gun while releasing the trigger (to figure out what went wrong) KA-BOOM! I think that would be scored as a miss while everyone dives for cover.
I enjoyed bird hunting and water fowling, so when I experienced my first flinch on a trap field then that ended my trap shooting because I didn’t want to be driven to use a release trigger. I just didn’t want to deal with mixing standard triggers and release triggers across clay birds and real birds. Plus I didn’t want it to affect my usage of handguns and rifles either.
As far as I am concerned, I believe release triggers are dangerous and don’t want anything to do with them. However, I still have my trap guns (with their standard triggers).
BTW, for those of your readers that have not heard of a release trigger for trap shooting here is a video by Larry Potterfield of Midway explaining it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PA7JxLdHTE
Whoever came up with the pull-release double tap trigger should save all their money from trigger sales for the legal team they will inevitably need.
Using a gun that fires a second time when the trigger is released is like holding a skunk by the tail. It won’t spray until you let it go. What do you do when you don’t want it to go off?
It is amazing how many gun grabbers don’t know what they are talking about!!!
How can there be an intelligent conversation on both sides when one side doesn’t understand basic facts!
I have a better idea. How about the officer has 2 guns. One is a real weapon, and the other is their hand in the shape of a gun (complete with the officer yelling “Bang!” when “firing”). They can use the finger gun in cases where black lives are mattering, and only the real gun when it gets dicey.
That ought to clear up this whole police misbehaving mess.
In all seriousness, even if they could get it to technically work, how does this help in situations like Mike brown, who was shot 6 times? All this would do is to train officers, “don’t just fire once”.
I am sure that when the double action revolver made its debut there were detractors who thought it would be too dangerous. This light activated trigger would appear to be in the same category. Perhaps if one trigger pull activates the light and then a release and a second pull to fire would be more acceptable? A double then single action auto loader such as the Beretta 92 requires a very educated trigger finger to keep from firing that second shot prematurely.
Bill T– Is that .357 with a 225 gr bullet a finger slip?
On the subject of modifying an auto loader to shoot blanks: I vaguely remember a WWII propaganda movie, I think starring John Wayne, where the hero was the last man standing as the Japanese over ran the US patrol and Wayne was fighting the enemy off with a 1911 but had to manually work the slide for each shot just before the screen fades to black. (Low budget I Guess)
RonS Says:
February 2nd, 2016
If I remember right the line is drawn at firing more than one shot per operation of the “big legal word for trigger”. Just like a release trigger on a trap gun to combat flinch, it doesn’t matter if you pull it or release it, each pull or release is one operation of the mechanism and you only get one free shot per operation.
Ron: The law states that the gun can only fire once for each OPERATION of the trigger. One “operation” is pull. Another (second) “operation” is release. If a gun fires just once on pull and once on release it is within the guidelines and is not considered a “machinegun” per BATF.
Re: “release triggers” there have been trap shotguns developed with a pull/release trigger where the gun fires once on pull and once on release and has been considered perfectly legal per the BATF. These guns and the new AR promoted at the SHOT Show all have safeties that can be applied after the first shot thereby preventing the second shot (no it doesn’t fire when taking off the safety).
While it seems that opinion here is virtually 100% against this idea I would like to give my 2 cents. As a CCW instructor I promote “double-taps” if a self-defense shooting is required. This gun will do that with ease. How many situations where you found the need to shoot would a second immediate shot be a bad thing?
Just a few more examples of you can’t cure stupidity.
For Randy, Yeah it should be 125gr for the .357. It gives me good velocity in a 9mm/.38/.357 size and good expansion.
These “inventors” should not be allowed around firearms. I can’t believe the gun in the picture, with the light activated by the trigger, was actually produced. Here’s a case where the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) is REALLY important.
I Can’t believe that all of you Gun owner’s, and Shooter’s, are taking all these Anti-Gun suggestions seriously?
They may, or may not, know firearms Usage, Safety, and Technology, as well, or better, than most of us do,
But That is Not The Point!
The Anti-Gunner’s true Goals Are:
1. Pass Laws to make legally obtaining Firearms as Difficult as Possible;
2. Make Produced Weapons, as Ineffective, Technically Complex, and Confusing, to get them into action, slow to Operate, and legally Difficult to Defend Using, After the FACT, as possible.
3. Establish a Total Registry of all US Gun Owner’s, legally, Though encouraging Mass Shootings in “Gun Free Zones”, and contrived Incidents in similar “Non-Defensible Zones”.
4. When the number of legally Owned, and Registered, Firearms dwindles to what is considered a “Manageable Number”, then engineer a Contrived Mass Killing incident, and use Presidential Executive Powers to legalize the “Confiscation”, or “Temporary Collection”, or other suitable Euphemism, to send American Armed Troops, door, to Door, collecting all Registered Firearms, and Arresting, and Imprisoning, or Killing, all Who Refuse, on the spot, just like “Hitler’s NAZI Storm Troopers did in Germany, back in the 1930s, proving that American’s Have Not learned any where near as much from History, as the Israelis’ have, from WW-II!
So, keep right on being distracted by the Anti-Gunner’s seeming lack of knowledge of, and Stupidity, right up until a Squad of Heavily Armed NAZI-izd American Military Storm Troopers show up at YOUR Door (Or Kick it Down, at 2:00am) and stick a rifle in YOUR Face, and say “Ve are Here to Collect XX Number of Firearms Registered to YOU”!
I’m in the process of inventing a video sight for police guns that activates whenever the firearm is handled. This innovative sight is linked electronically/mechanically to the gun’s firing mechanism and will immediately send a color video image of what it’s pointed at, to desk bound police bureaucrats who can then decide whether to allow the weapon to fire.
This way, if the gun is pointed at a suspect of color, the bureaucrat can disable the cop’s gun to save black or brown lives. If the bad guy/gal is white or yellow, the gun’s firing pin is unlocked to allow the firearm to fire.
Who needs a smart gun, when a smart bureaucrat can remotely control the weapon’s ability to function. I’m sure our Dear Leader and HillBilly plus the NAACP will support this beneficial, lifesaving invention. I expect to hear back from the U.S. Patent Office soon. Any interested investors?
When I take my foot off the gas, I don’t want to accelerate. When I take my finger off my trigger I don’t want it to go “bang”.
Make since?
Blanks can kill under certain condition. Link to an example.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon-Erik_Hexum
If I recall correctly, Brandon Lee was also kiled by a blank round.A bullet from a dummy cartridge fell into the barrel and was pushed out when the blank was fired.
So if you don’t want to fire a second shot you have to keep the trigger depressed. That is called a “dead-man switch,” useful I guess in some murder-suicide schemes. I would not want to be attached to one.
@ Paul Edwards: The trouble isn’t that we are being distracted by the stupidity of the anti-gun zealots, but that they are the ones given credence while ACTUAL common-sense is ignored. The honest truth is that the media is in lockstep with the anti-gun crowd.
It is stupid anti-gun zealots who produce ads showing a kid stealing his mother’s firearm and taking it to school to hand it over to a teacher because He “doesn’t feel safe” with it at home. Those same zealots for whatever reason simply do not understand that such an action is patently illegal, would get the school locked down, and possibly get that child killed by police responding to a gun at the school
It is RICH anti-gun zealots who have bought legions of people too stupid to know that a “30 caliber clip” does not exist, “bullets” and rounds of ammo are not the same thing, “spraying bullets” is not an option with semi-automatic firearms, and there is no “gun show loophole”, and you cannot order guns online.
I know this, most people with IQ’s above mashed potatoes know this…but to ignore the stupid people is to do so at your peril. Like it or not, they outnumber us in the policy-making department because they are the one passing the laws that will eventually send the stormtroopers.
Alec Rawls Says:
February 4th, 2016
“So if you don’t want to fire a second shot you have to keep the trigger depressed. That is called a “dead-man switch,…”
No, if you don’t wish to fire the second shot you simply put it on “Safe”.
How about a laser that hypnotizes the dirt bag into shooting himself? What, it could happen!
I’m torn on this “double tap” trigger mechanism. Personally, I’ve always have felt that, other than for recreational fun at the range, any weapon capable of multi-shots per trigger pull has very limited value to the average person as a self defense weapon. The average person buying a weapon such as this will most likely never put in the practice and training necessary for safe operation as a home defense weapon.
Having said that, I can see the value of such a device for members of a professional SWAT entry team, who train regularly and intensively on dynamic entry, expecting violent resistance. This practice is measured in tens of thousands of rounds, not hundreds of rounds, days of an average week, not hours of a year.
Double/ triple tap response to deadly resistance is taught, practiced, and is the norm. I see this adaptation as, possibly, a more controllable alternative to the “three shot burst” currently the norm. Provided of course if the mechanism proves to be reliable enough to risk your life on.
Just my thoughts. For my self defense needs, I will stick to weapons the rely on me to control each shot. I train and practice double and triple tap, but maintain trigger, grip, and sight alignment discipline on each shot, giving me some ability to control fire as the sight picture changes during an exchange, which I assure you it will. Again, just my thoughts.
Jaji, I couldn’t agree with you more!
The National, and Local, Lame Stream Medias are in the Anti-Gunner’s pocket, covering for them, at ever turn, ignoring every thing we say, and every “Armed Citizen” Self Defense Incident, as though it never happened too!
Release triggers have been popular in the shotgun sports (trap) for some time. They’re usually used to alleviate the effects of a flinch developed over 10’s of thousands of rounds by some shooters.
These “ideas” may serve to show how important context is and how things can become truly ridiculous in an instant should context be too heavily confused!
I most certainly am not one to support inappropriate gun handling ever. Regardless of context.
Mas, I’ve been searching for something to say since you posted this but I can find no words to describe the utter stupidity of these ideas. But somehow I know somebody will come up with worse.
If you want to shoot twice, just pull the trigger twice, no? What’s so complicated about that? I don’t see the need for this device except as a crutch for someone unsure of his abilities. What I do see is a bonanza for lawyers.
G. Gorden Liddy described in one of his books an incident that took place when he was an FBI agent in Gary, IN.(probably late ’50s, early ’60s when things were a bit different). Another agent encountered a wanted murderer as the murderer stood inside a phone booth making a call. The suspect also recognized the agent and dropped the phone as he attempted to draw a weapon. The FBI agent emptied his revolver into the wanted man inside the phone booth.
When asked why he shot the man six times the agent responded, “Because that’s all the gun held.”
@ MichaelJT
Considering that the standard police revolver (during the late 1950’s to early 1960’s) was a 38 Special loaded with round-nose lead ammo, the agent was wise to empty his revolver. The poor stopping power of the old standard velocity lead round-nose ammunition is well documented.
After emptying his primary revolver, I hope he had his back-up handy just-in-case six was not enough.
MichaelJT – I’ve always loved that quote but never knew its’ origin. It’s right up there with another oldie but goodie: “Why do you carry a .45?” “Because they don’t make a .46.”
As for antigunners proposing these “great, lifesaving ideas,” I guess the one thing you could say is that if this is as good as they can come up with, we should be happy as they are so easy to defeat. Be thankful they don’t have a Massad Ayoob to generate new gadgets!
Seems most have overlooked or simply just failed to mention the video of the TRIGGER ACTIVATED LIGHT/LASER! Holy Cow–I see dead people. Safety Last, I guess, which is by the way an outstanding silent movie featuring my favorite actor of the era–Harold Lloyd.
Thanks, Mas, for keeping us up to speed on both the good and bad.
Obviously, the gent who developed the one shot pull/one shot release trigger hadn’t anticipated what one has to do if one shot was enough. Clearing the firearm while holding the trigger back seems to me to be an attorney’s dream of negligent design.
WR Moore says, “Clearing the firearm while holding the trigger back seems to me to be an attorney’s dream of negligent design.”
Actually, the design is such (and stated in the article) that if you fire one shot and do not wish to fire the second, you simply apply the safety. When you take off the safety, the gun will not fire that second round.
While it appears that I’m the only one on here that doesn’t see this as dumb idea of the Century, second only to Obama being given the Nobel Peace Prize, I think it wouldn’t be bad to have this capability in reserve. The gun will still fire normally, if that is what you wish. The military has the 3-round burst; we can have the 2-round burst (sort of). The only thing that would keep me from getting one of these triggers is the price.
The trigger that fires on both press and release is just, or should be, a rifle range toy for those who want to pretend that their rifle is fully automatic. It should never be used anywhere but on a rifle range or in the middle of the desert, where the muzzle can “always” be pointed in a safe direction.
To avoid firing a second shot on release it has been stated that one simply engages the safety while continuing to press the trigger. Since most folks have to adjust their grip to re-engage the safety of an AR type rifle, don’t know if this operation can be considered simple or safe.
I’m starting to get a suspicion that the good Captain has some affiliation with one of the two companies that produce this new trigger system. I could be wrong 😉
LOL 🙂 I am not affiliated or connected or even know anyone who works for those companies. I just think this is not the worst idea ever like everyone else does (not the first time I was alone in my opinion). Certainly it would not be used for hunting or precision target shooting but what are the other reasons that folks own AR’s? Self-defense, fun and “prepping” comes to mind. For self-defense being able to shoot 2 quick shots (double-tap) at a bad guy is not a bad thing. For fun, it would definitely be a hoot and would be almost like having full auto at a fraction of the cost and no pesky NFA paperwork. And “prepping” means being prepared for the apocalypse. This goes along the lines of self-defense but more so as if society collapses having a nearly full auto defensive rifle might turn the tide of rioting hordes.
My point is, have the selector position to do 2-shot “bursts” is not all that bad a thing and I’m sure that many here would love to legally have a 3-shot burst AR but jumped on the bandwagon to laugh off this idea of “almost” a 2-shot burst rifle as an idea like having Obama on the Supreme Court.
I don’t plan on getting one of these triggers but I fail to see how it is quite THAT bad an idea if you understand how it really works (many commenters on here apparently don’t).
Comments are closed.