Don't modify your carry guns

Before I begin... I am not a law enforcement officer or an attorney. All of the below advice is from my own personal knowledge and I guarentee none of it for accuracy. This advice is free and worth exactly what you are paying for it. Before you make the choice to go armed, you should seek legal counsel and professional training. Don't base anything on what I write other than that it is "food for thought".

This topic was inspired by a thread on one of the forums I frequent. The person starting the thread stated he had purchased a new S&W 642. This is a J-Frame, snubby .38 Special. The normal production model of this gun comes with an internal lock. This is not a safety. It is a key controlled lock to allow you to make the gun a paper weight when storing it, in order to make it more "child proof". There was a limited run of 642's last year that did not have the lock, and in fact I bought one and it is what I carry most days. The original poster of this thread bought the gun with the lock because he could not find one without the lock. The next day, he found one. He was mostly posting just to vent.

However, several people starting posting ways to disable the internal lock. The main reason you would do this is that there have been quite a few cases where someone fired a gun with an internal lock and the recoil turned the lock just enough to activate it. That means if you were defending your life at the moment, you better pray that first shot hit the mark because you won't be making another one. What I tried to explain in that thread and what I will pontificate about here is why that is such a horrible idea.

There are three phases to defending yourself and your loved ones. Rob Pincus from Valhalla Training Facility calls it the 3 fights. The first fight is the choices we all make in every day life. The choice of whether or not to carry a gun. The choice of what side of town we visit. The choice of how aware we are of our surroundings. We are in the first fight every day whether we realize it or not. The second fight is the one that most people think about. This is the actually act of defending yourself against an attacker. It is the one we were preparing for during the first fight. The third fight is the one everyone forgets. It begins the moment the last shot is fired and the bad guy falls. It's the fight to make sure that you are seen as the good guy and the fight to keep you out of jail. We can call it the aftermath.

The first thing to remember is that the first person to call 911 is seen as the victim. Since the other person is the perpetrator, if you don't call 911 immediately, guess which role you get to play. You MUST call 911 as soon as the fight is over and you are sure that the danger has passed. You should identify yourself, make sure they know you were attacked and you defended yourself. Don't get to chatty at this point. Adrenaline is still flowing. You can give all the details 24 hours later after consulting an attorney. Just make sure they understand you were the good guy, you shot the bad guy and you need the cavalry to come.

Now, hopefully you escaped the fight unharmed. In most areas of the country, there is a decent shot the DA will choose to prosecute you for the shooting. You do not want to give them ANY extra ammo to use against you. That is why you don't use reloaded ammo for your carry ammo and you don't modify your carry gun.

Now, let me back up and clarify here. I'm not saying you can't get a nice custom 1911 and carry it. When I talk about modifications, I'm talking about modifying anything safety related. For instance, if you want a gunsmith to smooth out the trigger on your 1911, go for it. However, I would not have him lighten it and I definitely would not have him disable the grip safety. Either of those things can be protrayed to the jury (which is probably not gun people) that you intentionally made your gun unsafe. Forget the fact that it didn't fire until you were ready. They will paint it in a way to make you look like the bad guy. If you want a super tricked out gun with a 2 pound trigger, get one. Just don't carry it. Use it at the range. Use it in an IDPA match, but it shouldn't be your carry gun.

The same is true of the internal locks. Do you really want to hear a DA tell that jury how you disabled a factory installed safety on your gun? Why risk it? There are tons of guns out there without an internal safety lock. Buy one of those. I could understand if there was some new gun out that had a major advantage no other gun had, and it had an internal lock... MAYBE. That just isn't the case. There are plenty of guns out there to choose from that will do a great job of protecting you that don't have in internal lock. As an example, the 642 with a lock that was bought by the original poster in that thread that started this rant will not do any better of a job defending him in a fight than the 642 with no lock that I carry daily. In fact, since there is a small chance of the lock failing, you could argue his will do a worse job. Why in the world would anyone choose to buy the one with the lock? I can hear your argument now... it's to make it child proof. That is what your gun safe is for!

Ok, I'm done ranting. I apologize that my posts this week were a bit heavy handed. I just feel this is a real serious issue that people don't spend nearly enough time thinking about. Do what you have to do to protect yourself and your family, but you won't do your family any good serving time for a righteous, self defense shooting. Think about the gear... think about the fight... but think about the aftermath too. It is just as important as the other stuff. Stay safe out there... and watch your six.