Evening.

Not here to rehash age old conversations but would like to engage both sides for this question:

Which is safer for a poorly trained person in high stress situation facing a threat, attempting to shepherd children?
A Glock 19 with a round in the chamber
or
a HK USP compact V1, round in the chamber, safety on

Background:

Like many of you, I'm refocusing attention on areas other than ARs and ammo...right now, that's HD pistols.

Here's the setup:

One-Family home in a rural town, with small children (2 and 5). Wife has better than average familiarity with firearms but gets no range time. Pistols with WML are kept in FAS One lock boxes, one in the office, one by the bed, for quick, electronic free access. A suppressed AR is secured in a closet but for bump in the night/going to get children, the pistol gets the call.

Concerns:
Glock trigger getting engaged when moving kids or in replacing firearm after false alarm, resulting in ND
HK not firing because safety is engaged when threat appears

Initial thought: slight edge to HK because false alarms/replacing firearm is vastly more likely and therefore the chance for ND goes up with a Glock

Purpose of conversation:

Selection of 2nd pistol in type, potentially funded by the sale of the other. In brief, either moving completely to Glock 19 or HK USP compact for house pistols so there's no confusion.

Tangent:
Eventually want the bedside gun set up with WML, RMR, and can. I have the can and the WML already. Obviously, Glock makes that much easier than the HK. Office gun will duplicate my CCW for redundancy and simplicity sake.  

I'd appreciate your thoughts!

Any particular reason you're tied to condition 1?

Keep your finger off the trigger ?

Either put it in a holster on a belt, or put it in a messenger bag type of holster.  You can also keep a cell phone and house/car key and maybe a spare mag or two either way you go.

Edit:  HK USP with LEM.  Easy enough to shoot, long trigger pull to engage the brain that the finger is doing something.

Every gun is loaded...might as well mean they all are loaded. Continuity with carry guns too.

Plus, in the confusion of night or juggling kids, it could be hard to rack the slide on the Glock.

Well....the point of the question is why not condition 2 with the USP?

Glock 19, condition one. Wife and daughter know what to do.

External physical safety for my first line HD weapon

Not being drawn from a holster? Definitely the Glock.

Valid question.

To be perfectly honest, I hadn't considered it. It would be the only DA pull in the house, outside of a revolver, as well as requiring the manipulation of a safety...or at least the consideration of the safety even if off. I could change the variant on the USP compact...

Thanks for bringing that out.

Better training is the answer 

She can practice without going to the range.

She needs to be comfortable manipulating whatever weapon you/her choose.

My personal and professional opinion is always training beats gear selection, gear selection should be standardized, training should be simple and direct with a focus on highest probabilities first, mitigate threats at the lowest level, IE; good fences, good doors and locks, alarm systems, a big dog, lots of exterior lights, good neighbors/neighborhood.

Out of all your choices I would suggest a GSD.

Absolutely. The home is as hardened as I can make it: Alarm on cell, yappy dogs, good backyard fence, doors, locks, neighborhood, etc. In fact, I'm home almost every evening and most of the day.

In reply to what I bolded in your comment, that's what has brought me to a hard decision: is it more probable that she could have a ND because it is far more likely to retrieve the firearm and then have to return in due to a false alarm, snagging the trigger on something (Glock), than the likelihood of her retrieving the gun, pulling the trigger, but not sending a round down range due to a safety(HK)?

Ahead of you there! Two vicious Dachshunds!

Not in a spot in life for a big dog.

G19 with training/practice

Glock.

"Poorly trained" = they're not going to think of the safety, they're not going to rack the slide; if all they have to do is pull the trigger, they might have a chance.

In reality, "poorly trained" (with respect to firearms) = cell phone + baseball bat.

This!!!

Although OP's next poll would be about which side toward enemy, if the leads should be hooked up and what condition the clacker should be in.

What's the trigger pull on a Glock?  5.5#?

Why not go SIG DA/SA.........no manual safety to forget, and a 10# DA pull.

Eliminates both your concerns:
No safety to forget
Less likely to unintentionally or AD/ND a 10-pound trigger

I always thought Front Toward Enemy would be an awesome band name, unfortunately when I was actually in a band I got outvoted.

As for the OP's question, as much as I do not care for Glocks given the poll options that's what I'd go with in that situation.

You need to understand that the consequences of having an ND, even a life-altering one, can in no way compare to the worst possible consequences of not getting a "bang" when you're expecting one.   Someone breaking into your home with evil intent can make you wish they'd just shot you.

Adding in a casual user - you may handle the pistol occasionally, and needing to actually use it is extremely unlikely... but that casual user has a pretty high chance of running into problems with the safety.


Either platform works but I'd suggest something like a Glock for users that aren't going to get a lot of trigger time.

But that decocker, yo!

Poorly trained = will said user load/decock properly?

FRONT TOWARD ENEMY:  especially for a band!