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I don't like having a SA trigger for self defense due to loss of fine motor skill...
Hey Evan, can you give me additional insight on this? I'm not sure I understand. Thanks!
Certainly...Stress does funny things to the body. At a heart rates of 175bpm plus coupled with an epinephrine dump from fight or flight, normally easy skills become quite difficult. I heard one gentleman use the term "when fingers turn to flippers." Doing one thing with one hand and not the other becomes next to impossible. Performing tasks with the finger tips causes great difficulty because of vaso-constriction and the blood returning to the center of the body to protect the organs. These are only a few of the physical effects of adrenaline on the body.
Knowing that these things occur during stress (not to mention all the mental effects that occur), I believe that a DAO or safe action type trigger is a better choice. I don't want to have to think to manipulate a safety. Remember, its not just during the drawing process that you have to hit the safety. Its whenever you return to low ready, hold a suspect at gun point, scan / search an area, etc. You not only have to remember to disengage the safety but also engage it at the appropriate times. For myself, I don't want to have to work harder to run my gun then I need to during a high stress situation. I'd rather focus all my mental energy on observing, orienting, deciding and acting in the altercation rather than needing to manipulate safeties and decockers. Point and shoot guns are superior for that type of situation, IMHO. Another issue with SA guns is that the trigger pull is very short. While potentially an advantage for gun games and bullseye, I feel that these types of actions could be a liability for me during a deadly encounter. With a DAO / safe action pull, the amount of travel necessary to fire a shot is greater than an SA pull. When finger sensitivity is reduced during stress, a shooter may not realize that they are pulling a SA trigger before its too late. A DAO type trigger gives them more time to realize their taking up the trigger.
I think that a SA gun would be fine for folks who train enough to make it work. Certainly there are many well trained and competent shooters that can run a SA gun like a sewing machine. They can manipulate safties or decockers almost without a thought. Unconcious competence is the level we all must get to with our defensive tools and that holds just as true for running guns with safeties or decockers. For myself, I just like to keep it simple.
