[tipoc]

In the 1890s Americans who had developed designs for self loading semi automatic pistols had to go to Europe to get anyone to pay attention to them. American manufacturers avoided the suspicious things. So Hugo Borchardt, Hiram Maxim and John Browning all sold their early designs for semis in Europe. Even Browning's semi auto shotgun had to be first produced by FN. Once successful American arms manufacturers got involved. So don't be too hard on Europe, it led the way in semis.

On magazine disconnects I'm not sure when they first appeared but it was obviously after the development of the first detachable box magazine with the Borchardt pistol. This followed the successful use of these, box magazines, in bolt action rifles by the military. Many things about the use of handguns in armies come over from their use of long guns. (Think for a bit on the role the magazine cut off played in bolt action military rifles. The military did not trust armies of draftees, farmers, peasants and truck drivers, with complicated things like rifles.)

(The 1st and 2 variations of the Colt M1903 did not have mag disconnects. The later variations did have them.)

In turn most things and requirements for law enforcement handguns come over from the military use of the same.

So the mag disconnect comes from the military and first appeared there, from there to law enforcement.

The mag disconnect ensures that the gun will not fire unless the magazine is properly seated. A magazine that is not fully seated or partially seated, could fall loose when a soldier did not want it to or it could cause a jam. It instantly reminds the soldier, by not firing, that the gun needs a mag in it to be useful. It prevents a gun from firing when the soldier fails to rack the slide to eject a round in the chamber. This follows a military mindset where pistols were not drawn till a soldier was ordered to do so. Pistols were provided to Officers, cavalry, artillery crews, grenadiers and some other units. Yep not the infantry but not just officers either.

Now I can't recall reading anything, anywhere before the 1970s justifying the mag disconnect as a way to prevent the bad guy from shooting a law man by dropping the mag. I think this is a U.S. thing. I think it was offered up to explain why so many S&W da/sa semis with mag disconnects were used by law enforcement in the U.S. from the 1970s till the early 90s and later.

The story was spun by gun writers and salesmen that if a bad guy got the gun away from you in a scrum you could get your hand on the gun long enough to drop the mag and stop him from shooting you. This did in fact happen a very few times. This was never a reason that mag disconnects were developed but was and is an argument in favor of them after that fact.

In the real world one could as easily eject a mag from a pistol without a disconnect as from one with it. So think on the options from that point.

tipoc