Dumb question # 1242

[Ron Wood]

David,
I donâ??t think you can blame this one on the bureaucrats. Actually if you think about it there is logic to the various safety position changes. Take the 1911 .45 for instanceâ?¦to take it off safe you press down. This is kind of a natural motion with your shooting hand. As you can see from Dwightâ??s list, you had to move the safety down on the 1904 and 1906 First Issue Navy model to ready it to fire, just like the Colt. However, on the Luger the thumb safety is a relatively long lever with a pronounced raised portion at the end, and positioned on the rear of the frame such that it was pretty easy to knock it off safe when holstering the gun. Therefore, many of the First Issue Navies were altered to place it on safe in the down position, and the Second Issue was made that way. Since the Navy grip safety models were intended to be carried in a holster, this was strictly a military adaptation. Commercial grip safety models continued to be made with the thumb safety up, presumably because it was not as likely the guns would be holstered and/or not subject to combat conditions that would make this feature important.

With the elimination of the grip safety, the mechanics of the thumb safety directly connected to the sear blocking tab dictated that the thumb safety has to be in the down position to place it on safe, so it was not possible to restore a natural â??press down to take off safeâ?� action. And thatâ??s the way it stayed for the rest of Luger production.