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In reply to the discussion: Woman In Starbucks Drops Purse With Forgotten Gun, Shoots Friend In The Leg: St. Pete Police [View all]JohnnyRingo
(18,641 posts)but most, if not all semi-auto pistols, have a backstrap (or similar) safety that only activates the firing pin when held properly in hand. Gun manufacturers do this because they want to avoid the reputation of building an accident-prone model that kills people through mishandling (and the fed firearms law of '68 requires it). This isn't new technology, I have a 100+ year old Colt so equipped.
There could have been a confluence of events that came to be in her pocketbook that replicated the pistol being held in her hand and the trigger pulled when she dropped it, but it's much more likely she did something careless and wants to blame the gun. The purse did it!
She shouldn't have been carrying it in "condition one" anyway (Chambered with safety off). Guns aren't stupid, but many people are. She needs sued for everything she owns to learn her (safety) lesson. I'm glad she'll never see that gun again except in court.
See grip & drop safeties:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_(firearms)
(I don't carry a gun, and I'm not one of the gungeon dwellers who opposes background checks or mag limits, I just think there's more to this story than so far reported.)