Michael Bane notes that he not only experience but got a failure of a revolver’s internal lock mechanism on film. I’d love to see the footage.

Internal locks are the creation of good intentions that don’t truly serve a good end. It’s integrating a locking system into the internal mechanics of a gun so that, if locked, the gun cannot fire. No one in their right might would use such a thing. If you need the gun for defensive purposes, you will not want it to be locked because there’s no way you’ll unlock it in time to use the gun. If you would use the lock, say for storage, there are other means one can use to render a gun inoperable, such as using cable locks or storing the gun in a proper locked safe.

What does an internal lock do? It adds complexity to the mechanics of the gun. More parts, more things going on, thus more points of failure and things going wrong. And Lord, if your life was on the line and the gun decides to fail — because obviously they can and do — you’re going to be most unhappy.

A gun is designed to be a simple thing. Really, the simpler a tool is, generally the better it is. The more you screw with it, the more you can risk things breaking or going wrong. If this post is correct, I look forward to S&W removing the locks. Helps in my search for a snub. I will admit, I was a bit indifferent about the lock situation in my snub search, but no longer. There will not be no lock on my snub; even if the chances of failure are slim, if this piece is something I’m trusting my life to I want to ensure it’s as reliable and failsafe as I can get it. I don’t need that 1 in a million chance of being attacked to coincide with the 1 in a million chance of the gun failing when I need it most.

Updated: I did some Googling on S&W removing the internal locks and it seems to not be true. There are some limited edition runs without locks, but on the whole no it’s not happening. At least, that’s what I can find right now.