FNS accidental discharge issue?

I had an FN FNP 45.

Great gun. However, I wanted an optics ready pistol so I sold it in the hopes of getting an FNX 45 Tactical.

I wonder what other pistols do that.


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Because you have bureaucrats making decisions about guns that know nothing about guns.

And of course choosing the 4th ranked gun because of cost.

Just give everyone a Glock and be done with it.
 
Reporters these days are really just horrible. They left out the biggest part of the story which is, who approved of the weapon that came in 3rd in their own tests and did someone get kickbacks from the decision. Seems to me it a career ending decision in the least given that there were two obviously better choices available.
 
I believe the Baltimore PD and their 'crime lab' tests as much as I believe Bill Cosby when he said 'here drink this, it's good' while tending bar at my kids' birthday party with R. Kelly as the clown. Outside of Chicago, it's probably the most corrupt PD in the country.

I was born there, and I will never return. Ever. My family can move here if they want to hang out. The cancer from DC was just too much for a great city like B'more to survive.
My bet is that just like the much-ado about the Sig P320 (of which I own a fine example) it was most likely boogerhooks on bangswitches, and then the need to CYA that brought about this controversy. It's been discussed at length on the FNForum where I am a member.

From the article, here's the (less easily replicated than hammering my P320C) risk being discussed:

'it was discovered that if the trigger was held to the rear, the pistol could delay firing until the slide moved back into battery, or if force is removed from the trigger and the slide moves back into battery. FN has no knowledge of the condition ever occurring outside of a lab environment. Nevertheless, FN immediately addressed this potential condition with both the AZ department and BCPD by replacing the striker in each FNS-40, at no cost to either agency. FN subsequently posted a Service Bulletin to the public with an offer of a free striker upgrade for those who wished to send their pistol in.'

OK.....I would like to know how to recreate this with my FNS9 without a ransom rest, or enlisting another idiot to manipulate my slide. I guess I could zip tie the trigger back.

@BatteryOaksBilly you wanna try this test at your place? I'll donate the firearm for testing purposes. I'll take bets on it never happens. And mine is an early model 2012, so it probably predates the Baltimore PD 'Rough Riders' edition.

More smoking gun:

Second, Chief Sheridan describes the potential of a catastrophic failure, attributed to three firearms out of 1,920 FNS-40 pistols in service with BCPD. Three pistols experienced a trigger pin either backing out or moving slightly out of position. This trigger pin is a component that requires routine maintenance and should have been replaced according to armorer’s manual provided to Baltimore County Police Department range staff.

It is unclear whether BCPD range staff previously serviced any of the FNS-40 pistols in their possession according to the armorer’s manual provided. However, BCPD Police Chief Terrence Sheridan noted in his Emergency Justification for a Replacement Service Weapon dated Oct. 30, 2018, that BCPD range staff were able to quickly replace this trigger pin, returning the three FNS-40s to service.
 
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Reporters these days are really just horrible. They left out the biggest part of the story which is, who approved of the weapon that came in 3rd in their own tests and did someone get kickbacks from the decision. Seems to me it a career ending decision in the least given that there were two obviously better choices available.

The Hipoint came in 4th, but unfortunately they couldn't secure a big enough supply for all their officers.

With the new 2stack Hipoint design imminent, I see them going to that one after dumping the FN's.
 
Isnt it obvious? In a progressive modern city like Baltimore, BPDs finest doesn't need firearms anymore. Unanimously, the city school board doesn't wanting them carrying guns in schools so kids will be safe from the FNS .40

https://www.leoaffairs.com/baltimor...olice-officers-from-carrying-guns-at-schools/


Maybe they should just let BPD officers carry radios instead of unsafe, unreliable FNH firearms with guys like this on the force:

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-gttf-hersl-sentencing-20180621-story.html

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/09/freddie-gray-death-trial-rough-ride-baltimore-police
 
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I believe the Baltimore PD and their 'crime lab' tests as much as I believe Bill Cosby when he said 'here drink this, it's good' while tending bar at my kids' birthday party with R. Kelly as the clown. Outside of Chicago, it's probably the most corrupt PD in the country.

Bravo. Laughing hard at these beautiful Hollywood world saviors.
 
I wonder what was done before the hammer hit. It seems bad from what was shown but not all the information is in the video.

No conclusion from me, just yet.
 
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I wonder what was done before the hammer hit. It seems bad from what was shown but not all the information is in the video.

No conclusion from me, just yet.
yeah, that is one butchered up video. Would like to see the unedited versions from the testing facility. Curious to see how extreme the manipulations were in order to create or recreate the failures
 
Yeah something doesn’t add up, I’d really be interested in seeing who else is able to reproduce this issue outside of a PD.

Truth be told I am of the opinion that FN makes some of the best weapons out there, I just don’t see FN destroying their reputation by allowing a sub standard or unsafe handgun to keep leaving their doors until the issue was resolved and this is coming from a die hard Glock fanboy.
 
I watched the latest video, which includes information about the Arizona situation. Here's a link: https://foxbaltimore.com/features/o...eveals-unexpected-gunfire-from-police-weapons

The pistol shown at point 4:11 in the Fox45 video is clearly a Glock, and it looks like it may have a NY trigger installed. That's just a filler shot not really relevant to the rest of the video, but someone involved in creating the video doesn't know much about the guns in question.

I can't imagine WHY anyone would (as is done in the video) fire a weapon, leave the trigger depressed (thereby not allowing it to reset) , and THEN press it against an unyielding surface. And then have it hit by a sharp blow -- again without releasing the trigger.

LATER UPDATE: See reply 19, below. I may have misinterpreted what happened in that video -- at least for the first unintended discharge.

It looks as though the gun was pushed against a hard surface, and the trigger was pulled. Because the gun was out of battery, it could not fire, but the trigger was held to the rear and as the shooter was backing away from the wall, the gun fired.​

With Glocks, the striker spring is only partially tensioned until the trigger pull completes the process. I don't know enough about HOW MUCH/HOW FAR the FNS (or FN509) striker spring is tensioned prior to the trigger pull, but I would expect the firing pin (striker) safety to NOT be affected by strikes or drops.

But -- with most guns, the firing pin/striker safety is disabled when the trigger is pulled fully to the rear -- and that's what we see in the videos. (IF the striker spring is nearly/almost fully tensioned, and the trigger is fully to the rear, the striker safety might be disabled. There are several other guns out there that might not do well when put to that same test -- as several have the striker spring almost fully tionsioned by slide movement.

That doesn't explain why it might discharge when it's holstered, one of the claims in the video, as it's hard to holster a weapon while you're holding the trigger to the rear. Releasing the trigger should reactivate the safety mechanism. Then, too, you'd have to have pretty forceful strike to the firearm as it was holstered before the trigger was released. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

I wonder if the photos or videos in question were doctored -- as some folks have suggested, elsewhere.
 
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Funny, I shot my FNS9 at @BatteryOaksBilly 's place on Saturday. Nobody got killed, didn't have any malfunctions, the gun is my 'go to war' choice handgun even though I carry a POS Sig P320 EDC.

Of course, I didn't see a hammer or any LEOs around so.....who knows.

but I wouldn't want anything else on the console while I am shooting two pieces of steel thru the car door window ;)

So in short, my 2 very deadly dangerously engineered unsafe handguns still only slung lead in the direction I pointed at them, with my boogerhook on the bangswitch.

Otherwise they just rode in my holster or sat on the spools and never ever killed a dog or an innocent bystander. Not sure why the~ 0.0015% (3 out of a little less than 2000) of 'rough rider' Baltimore PD guns had a failure due to lack of maintanance, but mayby they should learn the 4 rules of gun handling and quit worrying about who's getting kickbacks from what manufacturer.
 
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I watched the video more closely. It looks as though in the first part of the video, the shooter presses the gun against a hard surface, which pushes the slide out of battery, and in the process the trigger is pulled to the rear. That should disable the striker safety (as nearly all such mechanism are intended to disable the striker or firing pin block when the trigger is pulled to the rear. The trigger is kept to the rear as the slide returns to battery AFTER it is pulled away from the hard surface. Does the hammer being pulled fully to the rear keep the striker safety disabled? That's the way most of them are intended to work.

In the second video the testers did basically the same thing -- pressed the muzzle against a table top and then removed the pressure so that the slide is back in battery. When the gun is HIT by a hammer, the trigger has been allowed to move forward, but we can't tell whether it was forward the entire time, or not. When it's rapped by a hammer, it fires. (Which would be a bit like a drop.) If the striker spring is nearly fully tensioned, and a solid blow is applied (with the striker safety somehow disabled), it could possibly fire. But why is the striker safety disabled if the trigger isn't still held to the rear?

As noted earlier, I don't know how much of an FNS stroker spring has been charged/tensioned by slide movement -- but in the first case, it would have been charged the normal amount (whatever that is) by the prior slide movement. Ditto the second example. (A chambered round means sufficient slide movement.)

With some guns, the striker spring is only partially charged -- maybe 65% or 70% of what is requied -- and trigger movement completes the process, charging the spring and then releasing the striker safety. With other guns, like my XDm and S&W Pro, slide movement basically fully (or nearly fully) charges the striker spring, and trigger movement does little more than trip the striker while disabling the striker safety.

With such a gun (i.e., it is essentially a SA gun), it may be that other guns using a similar action design could also have unintended discharges if the slide is moved enough to move the gun out of battery AND the trigger is also pulled before it returns to battery. Don't know what was going on with that second example, with the hammer strike.

The conditions described above are EXACTLY the conditions addressed by the PSA/Safety announcement.
 
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