SERPA Holsters

I mentioned SERPA holsters in a post about equipment soldier’s use and got a couple comments about them. They more or less matched up with some relatively recent reporting of people having negligent discharges when using the holsters. So here are my thoughts.

When I first saw them I thought it was a gimmicky idea and would be a flash in the pan. Man I got that one wrong, I totally missed the pulse of a community I am a part of. Before anyone asks personally I do not like SERPA holsters. Maybe it is for the best that I do not buy individual stocks.  The reason I do not like SERPA holsters is that they have a method of retention that uses the index finger. I am used to thumb break and open top friction type retention holsters. I have a lot of muscle memory in thumb breaks and just pulling the darn thing out is pretty much as easy as it gets. My personal experience is that in times of stress and fatigue we revert back to muscle memory. I can’t get over visions of myself trying to pull the darn thing out and pressing random stuff with my thumb only for it to stay fast in the holster.  They work fine I guess but I see no reason to stray from what I am used to.  That sums up my strictly personal opinion on the matter.
As to the SERPA and negligent discharges I find little to no reason to buy into it. Sure you have to extend your finger to draw the weapon but personally I draw that way anyway as it puts my hand where I want it. I index my finger along the frame above the trigger until I want to shoot something. If you don’t stick your bugger picker into the trigger guard and go flopping it around wildly the darn gun probably will not go off. That is strictly a software issue (in your darn head) not a hardware issue, at least in the way you might think.
It reminds me of when a couple of big PD’s (back east, NY I think) switched to Glock’s some time back and had a few embarrassing high profile negligent discharges. Those Glock’s were not faulty in any way. They fired when some cop stuck his finger into the trigger guard and pulled the trigger, intentionally or not. The reason is that the new hardware (the Glock’s) exposed a weakness that had always existed in those shooters. Those cops grew up on double action revolvers (and had maybe spent a short period using DA/SA auto’s but let’s not get sidetracked from our current side track). Not that you should but one could walk around with their finger on the trigger of one of those old DA duty guns all day long, about no way you could fire it off by accident. Now a Glock is another matter as they have a substantially lighter trigger pull than a DA revolver.  I sort of see the same thing with SERPA holsters in that a new piece of technology is exposing weaknesses in shooters fundamental weapons handling.

Without doing a ton of research I suspect two things are involved in this supposed chain of ND’s. First after people hit the release button instead of immediately indexing their finger they unintentionally keep it bent and are applying pressure onto the holster as they draw. When the weapon clears the holster this pressure brings their bent finger into the trigger guard with disastrous results.  The second (which I suspect is the root cause) is folks who are trying to proverbially run when they should be walking or jogging. I would bet that if the same shooters (prior to these ND’s) were asked to draw their pistol and then fire 3 rounds at a target in no particular hurry they would be fine. However if they are out of breath, trying to run while shooting at 3 targets simultaneously and be cool like Quick Draw Delta Dan or Speed Shooting SWAT Jimbo you can get disastrous results. As for why they are SERPA holsters part of it is probably that they are immensely popular with the “I’m going to go to super cool guy class” types.  Also the training issues we talked about before. At least that is what I suspect.

As to classes banning SERPA’s I bring you the 8 pound NY trigger AKA avoidance instead of training. NY decided that too many cops were having ND’s so they got a substantially heavier trigger made. Banning SERPA’s is avoidance of hardware that may be less forgiving of a particular weakness than other hardware.
I have never seen, though have heard of from 1 reputable source (fanboy’s in forum’s do not count) about a SERPA holster locking mechanism jamming. I have never seen an ND which was related to a SERPA holster.

In closing if you own and like the SERPA holster then by all means keep using it, just don’t stick your trigger finger into the trigger guard unless you mean to. No hardware will solve that problem.