stinkypete said:
On the first part, I think it depends on what you consider minimal practice. Now many of us here are likely practicing at a level where we can be proficient with a heavy trigger, but even during my years of shooting DA/SA I can say that in the weeks I didn't dry fire I noticed a difference at the range. The amount of practice is more than minimal, imo. That said I do agree and it's also been my personal experience that a heavy pull by itself is often not enough to stop an accident.
stinkypete said:
I think this is well and good in a world where a threat doesn't change, but threats do change. A home intruder with a weapon is something you might point a weapon at. If that intruder then sees or hears you and decides to run or surrender he or she may no longer be a threat. The typical expression these days from law enforcement and self defense instructors is shoot to "stop the threat", not shoot to kill. Even in the event you shoot someone they may stop being an imminent threat if they are disabled by the shooting. In that case destroying the threat could be murder (obviously local laws come into play as well).
stinkypete said:
Again I agree with this, which is why I created this thread in the first place. I neither want to require nor do I personally carry pistols with what I would call heavy triggers. There's a point though where I wonder if even finger placement itself might be enough to discharge a trigger, especially for someone in a stressful situation. Again ideally we keep our fingers off the trigger, but people still make mistakes. Does it make sense to have some kind of leeway?
Take this older joke for instance:
I bring this up because if someone told me their self defense pistol had a 1 lb. trigger with no takeup, I would personally consider that unsafe. That establishes in my mind that I am the type of person that does think trigger weight and travel do matter. The question then is what is that magic weight and length of travel that I consider acceptable, and is it frankly artificial to justify what I personally like or does it have real meaning?