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I've seen my dad uncock a gun a million times by just holding the hammer with his thumb, pulling the trigger, and slowly letting the hammer down, but I have the oddest feeling I'll shoot my foot off if I try... Plus my dad has more b--ls than i do!
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Don't point the gun at your foot.
Lowering the hammer on a 1911 carries some risk, but it can be done in complete safety, as it has been countless times over the last century. Before Jeff Cooper came along and enlightened us, most people who carried the big Colt did so in Condition 2 or at half-cock.
And Browning considered the half cock to be a safety position before the "manual slide locking safety" was added. He even gave instruction on how to get it there in the 1910 patents...and with one hand, no less.
If it were all that fraught with peril, there'd be a lot of old men walkin' with a limp.
The key is doing it properly...while pointing the gun in such a direction that an unintentional discharge would only result in a bruised ego...and practicing it with an empty gun before going hot.
Since decocking isn't something that one would normally do in a hurry...don't get in a hurry...ever. If you're in a hurry to make the pistol safe, that's what the thumb safety was put there for.
Please note that the older Star pistols...the PD, BM, and BKM...may look a lot like the 1911, and while their function is
similar, they don't have inertial firing pins. With the hammer down on a chambered round, the tip of the firing pin does rest on the primer. Those pistols are Condition 1 or Condition 3 only. A good friend of mine learned that the hard way. He was very lucky.
Unlike the 1911, the manual safety on the Star does actually lock the hammer, though.