Of The Beard.
So, the week waiting period is up today and yesterday he asked if I had a trigger lock for his M&P .45. Yeah, in Maryland you are not supposed to leave the store unless you have an approved trigger lock. Or if the gun has an onboard locking system, like what for that little zit on the newer S&W revolvers that RUINED THEM.
I have lots of locks. I bet there is a long cable lock that comes with the M&P. NONE of them will work for him because my state requires a chamber lock. And I didn't get one with my .45s.
For those in free-er states than Maryland (or Cali) what it is is a little cartridge size doohickey in the same caliber as your pistol. You chamber it. Then you stick a wrench down the muzzle and it expands the part, locking it in the chamber. They can even grab hold of the extractor, making it impossible to pull back the slide. VERY safe, if by safe you mean, "make the pistol near impossible to function." No one is going to take a pair of bolt cutters and get that bad boy out. Or even swap barrels.
The lock is only required on new guns. Springfield 1911s have that little key to turn that locks the mainspring down in the mainspring housing and you can swap out with a standard ping or new mainspring housing assembly. Some auto's have a keyway on the slide somewhere. Well, the police don't trust those locks and won't have them on their guns, so the M&P has no lock, hence the quandry for The Beard today. He'll end up having to buy one from the gun shop.
I have a lock I used to get my P229 .40 home. Someone forgot to sell me one on the Colt Commander. That's happened for some people, the gunshop says "Don't forget to bring your State approved locking mechanism when you pick this up in 8 days!" then forget to check it when you come back.
The only reason to keep a lock like this is if you have kids and never intend to use the pistol to defend your house and have no safe to secure the pistol in. A really angry DA might prosecute you if your 6 year old manages to crack your safe and shoots off your gun in some tragedy because you didn't have the lock in place anywhere that wasn't inside a shooting range. Sorta defeats the purpose of a home defense weapon. Even Gunny Ermey uses a pistol safe with a Glock that sounds like he stores is at Condition 3
So to take the gun home, you HAVE to put an Expandable Plug in the Chamber? A long Cable lock with the cable threaded through the Barrel is NOT Approved? WTF? For Crom's Sake, why don't they just Field Strip it and let you walk out the door?
ReplyDeleteYou can field strip it and walk out the door, but the little plug better be in the chamber of the barrel. Technically.
ReplyDeleteCan you field strip and put a cable lock in the stand alone barrel?
ReplyDeleteNot legally, no, is my understaning. The barrel's chamber must be locked with a state approved device. A cable lock is not that.
ReplyDeleteAttached a tempered Masterlock to the backstrap of a revolver and get it to work. Dunno why something like that is not approved. Or one through the ejection port of a field stripped semi. Better than a cable.
Hey, I wonder what they use to chamber lock a revolver in this state anyway...?