Safety on M&P Shield

[darkjedi351]

My county doesn't allow for SSE/non-roster pistols on CCWs. I have the California compliant Shield. Personally, I like the manual safety. It is low profile and I have trained for the last few months to sweep it with my thumb quickly as I draw. Not a problem at all. I have not drawn once and left the safety on. But of course, not to say I wouldn't forget to turn it off in a life or death situation. I don't think I would, I hope to never find out.

Being a new carrier, it frankly makes me a bit more uptight carrying a loaded gun, cocked with one in the chamber and not having a manual safety, like on a Glock. But I am sure I would get over that if I were carrying a Glock daily. Shield is a great little pistol. Not easy to shoot accurately but I think all subcompacts are that way, at least for me.

that's the same reason I got the ca model plus who knows if other counties or een the state will follow suit

[whipkiller]

The thumb safety is bad? Kind of a personal preference thing.
Well isn't all guns paper weight when no mag though? No, if no Mag disconnect you can still fire the round in the chamber even if no mag inserted.
I didn't understand why the mag is set that way

I have a Shield without thumb safety. I bought that model to stay consistent with my full size. It's a non CA version that you can only get now through ppt. If you're planning on buying new you'll be stuck with the CA model.

Yep, same here.

I don't care if my 1911 manual of arms doesn't match my M&P, but I didn't want to have a full size with no thumb safety and a shield with a thumb safety.

[Sliik]

I have a Shield (non-CA) and I used to carry it daily in FL. I took the stupid thumb safety off during installation of the apex sear.

[Hylas]

My county doesn't allow for SSE/non-roster pistols on CCWs.

This is not entirely true, Ventura doesn't allow Single shot 22lr/25acp calibers on your CCW when carried in a diff caliber. They do allow off roster firearms on CCW. So if you SSE'd a pistol there's ways of getting the SSE stigma scrubbed off the Dros.

Well isn't all guns paper weight when no mag though? I didn't understand why the mag is set that way

Mag disconnect is when a gun will not fire w/o a mag seated properly in the gun. If you are ever to need to defend your life with your pistol and you had 1 in the chamber and you draw your weapon and for whatever reason the mag release was accidentally tapped. Your gun will be useless. W/o Mag disconnect you will have 1 round to defend yourself with before you run or attempt a tactical reload

[DougJ]

I have a non-CA shield WITH the thumb safety, it's my primary CCW. Most of my semi-auto handgun shooting has been with the 1911 and I'm quite comfortable with a safety. Although it's low profile, I find the Shield safety very easy to set OFF, just not quite as easy to set back to ON. I draw it from the holster and set the safety off just about the same way as I do with a 1911, initially it felt like I needed to be more deliberate but I quickly got used to it.

I suppose you could carry the Shield with the safety OFF if you wanted to with very little possibility that it would inadvertently get set to ON.

[scootle]

the thumb safety on the shield is easy to operate but very low profile. this could be an advantage or disadvantage depending on how you look at it. disadvantage because some people might have trouble operating the safety if it does't stick out a lot...or it could be an advantage in that it's unlikely to snag on your clothes or rub on your holster and accidentally click off which is the risk you would run if your gun had a big extended thumb safety.

Some of the better Kydex holsters actually are set up/molded such that the gun only holsters with the larger thumb safety levers in the ON position. Just something to think about.

Honestly, the small safety lever on the Shield should be a non-issue with proper training. Use it or don't use it... it's not like a 1911 where it is a required part of the manual of arms.

I think most people overthink this aspect of the CA-compliant Shield... but that's just me.