Seismic Sam wrote:sharpshot71 wrote:
I am not a 1911 expert by any means, I have never even fired one.
It would be really terrible from a design standpoint if it would fire and go full auto by having the sear not catch the hammer. It is very easy to imagine a number of scenerios where the sear might miss the hammer and the hammer would ride the slide forward. My guess is that it that scenerio was considered during the design of the guns.
Yes, you're right, but that consideration only applies to a CORRECTLY assembled gun. This gun was reassembled by an idiot who put the sear in wrong so it wasn't in contact with the hammer at all. And then he sold it to somebody who didn't check it out very well before he bought it. Design has nothing to do with this particular incident.
I understand that it was an user/assembly error, but my point is this
There are many possible events having to do with design, manufacturing, wear, and use/assembly which could cause the sear to not engage the hammer, and the hammer might ride the slide down. I believe it would be an unsafe design if that would then cause the gun to go full auto.
Example. Springs wear, springs break. If your sear spring broke in the middle of a range trip, you would then have a fully automatic gun with no way to stop it until the magazine is empty. That would be very dangerous. It would require no fault of the user. It is also not a stretch of the imagination to see a spring breaking.
It would also be an incredibly easy way to make a gun fully auto.
Step 1. Remove sear spring
Step 2. Load magazine, point gun at target, pull slide back and let go.
Step 3. Rock and roll.
I doubt it would be that easy to make a gun fully auto, and I doubt the guns are designed in a way where a simple mechanical failure causes fully auto guns.
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