Brigid had a failure with her SERPA holster.

Blackhawk! SERPA holsters are all the tacti-cool rage.

I’ve never used one, and I won’t use one.

It’s too complicated. Or at least, it’s more complicated than a holster has to be.

A holster is just a pouch that holds your gun. How simple is that? Now when you start adding little buttons for retention devices, you’re adding complexity to the mix. I see lots of people trying to excuse the failure saying “well, it’s mechanical and all mechanical things fail.” I’ll certainly grant that, but as Brigid noted:

A jam, equipment malfunction or a misfire on the range is frustrating. Hunting it will certainly ruin your mood.

[…]

But I don’t carry this holster and this weapon for the range or for the hunt. I carry where I am the prey, and a”click click” instead of a “boom boom” may be the last sounds I ever hear.

Everyone talks about needing a reliable gun, that you want to ensure the gun goes “boom” and not “click” when it matters most. Well, none of that matters if you can’t get your gun out (first things first). A little speck of dirt under the SERPA’s release button causes it to fail to function? Unacceptable. The Glock fanboys love to talk about their wicked torture tests but a speck of dirt or a small rock gets into this holster and it flat out fails? If a speck of dirt got into a Glock and it failed, cries of derision would ensue. So how come another vital piece of the equipment chain is tolerated to be so failure prone?

Let’s also consider the fact the SERPA is banned from many gun schools. Why? Too many people accidentally shooting themselves while dealing with the holster. Read.

If you want to use a SERPA holster, that’s your choice; it’s your life on the line.