I am not one who believes in putting a gun on safe during immediate action (Tap, Rack, Bang) or slide lock/bolt lock reloads. The point of these manipulations is to correct the issue as fast as possible because you need to have the gun back in the fight as soon as possible. The last thing you should be doing during these times is a form of virtue signaling. Perhaps focusing on weapons handling and proper adherence to the safety rules is more reasonable than adding steps to manipulations and mechanics that can't even be universally applied.
SAFETY RULE
Let us look at the 4th gun safety rule: "Keep your weapon on safe until you INTEND to fire."
I would say immediate action and slide/bolt lock reloads are conducted because we INTEND to fire after the completion of that manipulation. Therefore, we are not violating any safety rule by not putting our gun on safe when we are actively using it, and that includes reloads and malfunction clearances. In the case of topping off your rifle/pistol during a tactical reload, sure your safety is on, but you don't always have a safety, so what then?
I would say immediate action and slide/bolt lock reloads are conducted because we INTEND to fire after the completion of that manipulation. Therefore, we are not violating any safety rule by not putting our gun on safe when we are actively using it, and that includes reloads and malfunction clearances. In the case of topping off your rifle/pistol during a tactical reload, sure your safety is on, but you don't always have a safety, so what then?
Putting your manual safety on before an immediate action procedure is as sensible as putting your safety on when transitioning from one target to the next during the El Presidente’ Test. I will take it a step further and say it is as sensible as putting your safety on between shots when shooting the Bill Wilson Test. I can use the same arguments of “Why not?”, ”you’re not using the gun between shots and there may be an innocent bystander between the targets”, ”it’s just safer”, etc.
SAFETY HYPOCRACY
The idea that you are being unsafe if you don’t have your manual safety on during all manipulations, no matter the situation, by default makes someone a safety violator for using guns without manual safeties, like Glocks, Sig P320, Sig P22X. The users of the P320 and Sig P22X can't even claim they have a trigger safety. What about the people who use 1911s and other guns that can’t be put on safe with the slide locked to the rear? How about Beretta M9 users? Are they supposed to reach back with their thumb and switch the safety/decocker on prior to reloading? How are people that run AKs supposed to run that manipulation? Safety on, eject empty mag, insert fresh mag, safety off, charge, safety back on? Why is it okay that these users just use muzzle and trigger finger discipline? If you are going to accuse people of practicing unsafe habits for not using their manual safety during a reload, you are a hypocrite for accepting muzzle and trigger finger discipline for guns that don’t have safeties or have safeties that cannot by turned on during reloads. The point of the manual safety is to prevent the trigger being pulled and firing the gun unintentionally from a finger or snagging. According to this fetish, if the gun has a manual safety and is not on safe, you are committing a safety violation, regardless of trigger finger and muzzle discipline. Just having a manual safety on a gun does not mean it needs to be used religiously. That is a flat range idea, like saying muzzle up is never okay, which has its origins also from flat range queens. I'm sorry that I'm not sorry, but in the real world, muzzle up in a close environment like indoors or in tight maneuvers is safer and more efficient.
THE ORIGIN
Patrick McNamara used reloading and maneuvering amongst a team with an AR15/M4 as justification. "If your buddy is reloading and maneuvering behind you, would you want his weapon to be on safe?" During his demonstration Patrick went muzzle down while passing right next to someone to show how a shooter could flag you. My response would be "So, having the safety on makes flagging someone okay?" The first issue is muzzling them by being muzzle down all the time instead of flexible. How about someone passing behind you with a Sig P320, P22X, AK, or 1911 in the same muzzle down manner? I'm guessing these people just have to be trusted to use trigger finger and muzzle discipline because they don't have a safety they can use during a reload. What if you take an AR15 shooter and give them an AK or a P320 where this manipulation can't be conducted? Are they now at risk of a negligent discharge during that manipulation? Is this saying these people can't be trusted to be safe without a manual safety? In a team, shouldn't you all be trained to maneuver amongst each other SAFELY and develop a trust that each person knows what to do and when? Is he implying that the AR15 is just inherently unsafe? Perhaps his point is that flagging people and a lack of trigger finger discipline is forgivable if we have our manual safety on. What if you point your muzzle skyward and tucked it into your workspace like a football while also exercising trigger finger discipline? Often, you will have to secure the rifle/pistol in this manner in order to maintain control so you can insert the new mag easier. Few trained people are going to dangle the rifle or pistol around while reloading, especially on the move.
This manual safety fetish is parroted by instructors who don’t realize they are doing what politicians do, adding unnecessary rules and steps to try to cover up a failure elsewhere. If your concern is the safety of others around you in the middle of a firefight where you have to do a reload, I would direct you towards developing remedial training in trigger finger/muzzle discipline and situational awareness. Consider the fact that most guns with and without manual safeties are only set off only by the trigger being pulled. I say most because stock and aftermarket hair triggers allow some of these guns to discharge if dropped, and even a manual safety isn’t going to stop that or slam fires.
Thinking that your weapon must be put on safe before performing any manipulations is either a display of how little the instructor understands about teaching safe firearms handling, or it is them using a professional teaching environment to do virtue signaling like many school teachers who want everyone to be indoctrinated into their politics. This is the result of being on the flat range for too long and trying to create ways to work around poor safety skills. Perhaps instructors teaching this should focus on fixing the way people are initially trained so that safety during reloads and maneuvers isn't an issue. Part of the problem I see here is also the religion of going muzzle down all the time no matter what. Muzzle discipline is all about being flexible and aware of your situation and surroundings. Muzzle up in a stack or when penetrating a room, and muzzle down when scanning or when first in a mobile stack. Again, the idea is you could crank off a round in an unsafe area, which leads to trigger finger discipline because if you are in an apartment complex on the 2nd or third floor, almost no direction is truly safe and you need to be more concerned with only touching and manipulating that trigger when you are on target.
THE TEACHING FLAW
These instructors have good intentions, but they are using a band-aid on a wound that requires stitches. Most of the people these instructors are preaching to are not going to spend any time practicing, and those that do practice will not see a point in using a safety when completing the manipulation and being ready to shoot again takes priority. Consider that most formal firearms training consists of hours of material delivery. Most subjects taught in these classes will not become procedural memory. Neurologically speaking, safe gun handling is one of the first victims of this poor teaching format. It is the first thing discussed and therefore it is the first thing to be corrupted and purged in order to make room for the more desired things that are more entertaining like reloads and transition drills.
FLAT RANGE CURSE
Flat ranges are so by the numbers and micromanaged that there is not really any need for conscious safe handling. It is all dictated one step at a time for maximum safety for the instructors and other students so there are no “accidents”. This isn't a bad thing, but it fails to force the students to develop habitual safe handling skills, resulting in “accidents” happening outside the range. People pay for an all-day or all weekend course and think they are all set. Imagine the disappointment these people have when they go to the range after not practicing and can’t hit a target, or when they have an “accident” while cleaning their gun or generally handling it. If you do not practice shooting, and even proper and safe gun handling, the memory will degrade and become useless. Just brain science. Perhaps the key is to spend more time on proper weapons handling and adherence to the safety rules in a dynamic setting rather than entertaining. Perhaps this would result in not having to patch up your failures with procedures people won't even implement due to it not being intuitive or even universal. I wonder how these instructors feel about someone shooting an AR15 and then transitioning to a gun like the P320 that has no safety. Do they lose their minds or do they just focus on the rational things like trigger finger and muzzle discipline?
REDUNDANT RULES
Many firearms instructors are knowingly selling entertainment over actual skills, resulting in a crapload of unsafe clients on the street. It would not be profitable to treat firearms training like a martial art and have weekly training for an hour or two and a graduated belt structure, I get it. But these same instructors are insisting that you add a manipulation step in the name of safety, but only guns with a manual safety apply. Perhaps we should make it a law that if you have an automatic transmission, you have to put your vehicle in park and turn it off at every stop sign, just so we know we are coming to a complete stop, as the law says we should. But this rule will only apply to automatic transmissions and not manuals. Let's create an additional driving law to enforce one that is broken due to negligence or impatience. According to this law, people driving a manual are somehow don't have an issue with stopping at a stop signs/lights. Or maybe this is an attempt to say, most vehicles are automatics so most people will be more safe. Perhaps that is the same idea for the safety fetish. Is the logic that most people use AR15s, so more people will be safe? What about when these same people transition to a P320? Meh, they should be fine because only the AR15 is dangerous in their hands. Wait, does that mean the AR15 is actually what is dangerous, or is it the shooters' methods of handling and operating the firearm that is a safety issue? Either way I look at this safety fetish, it all boils down to poor safe handling skills combined with and amplified by rigid flat range weapons handling dogma people don't want to give up.
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