You’re assuming that implementing a safety feature makes something safer. That’s not always the case.
No sarcasm here, just adding switches and blockers can actually make something less safe. Autopilot features that keep cars in the center of the lane can make the driver less attentive, so it can make the car less safe overall. Softer boxing gloves encourage more head punches, making brain trauma worse. More padding on football players make hits harder, causing more damage overall.
If a manual safety switch on a gun makes people complacent, they could cause more negligent discharges. If people feel that a manual safety switch would make using the gun in an emergency more difficult, they may leave it off, causing the gun to be less safe than if it didn’t exist (because the manufacturer would need to design around that).
I don’t have a strong opinion as to what types of safeties make sense, but a safety is really intended for preventing accidental discharges, not stopping the thing from being fired by a kid playing with it.
I think that the answer is “don’t let the kid play with the gun”, rather than “add another safety”.
Like, it sounds like she got home and just dumped her radio and gun out. The answer to that is to put it away, same as all kinds of poisonous and dangerous other things that you wouldn’t want a 3-year-old playing with.
You’re assuming that implementing a safety feature makes something safer. That’s not always the case.
No sarcasm here, just adding switches and blockers can actually make something less safe. Autopilot features that keep cars in the center of the lane can make the driver less attentive, so it can make the car less safe overall. Softer boxing gloves encourage more head punches, making brain trauma worse. More padding on football players make hits harder, causing more damage overall.
If a manual safety switch on a gun makes people complacent, they could cause more negligent discharges. If people feel that a manual safety switch would make using the gun in an emergency more difficult, they may leave it off, causing the gun to be less safe than if it didn’t exist (because the manufacturer would need to design around that).
I don’t have a strong opinion as to what types of safeties make sense, but a safety is really intended for preventing accidental discharges, not stopping the thing from being fired by a kid playing with it.
I think that the answer is “don’t let the kid play with the gun”, rather than “add another safety”.
Like, it sounds like she got home and just dumped her radio and gun out. The answer to that is to put it away, same as all kinds of poisonous and dangerous other things that you wouldn’t want a 3-year-old playing with.
Reducto ad absurdum