A question for this group--

[Straw Man]

30. There's a big difference ...

... between carrying a long gun for hunting and carrying a pistol for self-defense. When you're hunting, you're constantly moving over rough terrain (unless you hunt from a blind or treestand), and your attention is focused on other things besides the gun. Furthermore, the gun is in your hands at all times, and is subject to interference from branches, etc.

A handgun carried for self-defense is (or should be) carried in a secure holster that covers the trigger. The gun itself is never to be handled except when you put it on, take it off, or use it to defend your life. Furthermore, pistols that don't have safeties generally have longer, heavier trigger pulls to lessen the possibility of a negligent discharge. And of course there is the cardinal rule of safe handling: keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to shoot. I would hope that you practice this even with a firearm that is equipped with a safety.

Need I remind you that second only to "I didn't know it was loaded" in the list of lame excuses for a negligent discharge is "I thought the safety was on"? A mechanical device can be an added layer of safety, but it should never take the place of safe handling. The best a safety can do is prevent you from doing something that you shouldn't be doing anyway.

So you think that all guns without safeties are inherently unsafe? Except for a few 19th-century oddities, this would include every revolver ever made.