I talked my buddy through the screw idea via Skype.
No joy.
Apparently roll pins are EXTREMELY hard...and very good at staying secured in place. No screw was able to get a good enough purchase to remove the roll pin.
So I asked what the trigger was made from. Joy of joys, it was a plastic trigger guard. After a quick discussion, I suggested that he sacrifice the trigger guard in order to exposed the rollpin.
My buddy went to his local hardware store and bought an 1/4" chisel for $8 and in a second Skype session that lasted all of 5 minutes, we had the trigger guard chiseled off, the roll pin exposed and a needle-nose Vise-Grip pliers locked onto the roll pin. A few taps on the Vise-Grips with the hammer and the roll pin was out.
My buddy sent these from his iPhone:
