Howdy folks,
As both Mr. Jim and Mr. Wes have pointed out, that is a recurring issue I have observed with many slide mounted safety/decocking levers. I have owned pistols with this type of system in the past, to include several Smiths and one Beretta. At present my pistols either sport the frame manual safety or are Sig decockers only. Again these are my choices as I simply find they work the best for me.
For many reasons, including the added "safety" of leaving the lever in the safe position when stored at home, some shooters may prefer this system over the framed mounted manual safety. As I said earlier, to me it is simply a training matter, and folks should use the system they feel works the best for them.
During training I began to refer to the safety/decocking lever on our issued Smith pistols as a "deadman's lever" as I wanted to impress upon my colleagues that if they did not return the lever to the fire position prior to holstering, they would probably die in a shooting situation. Far too many times on ranges I have seen the lever inadvertently lowered while clearing a malfunction, and even more times during tactical courses the shooter under pressure forgot to return the lever to fire. I did note that most shooters only had to have this situation happen a few times before they became much more deliberate in working the safety/decocking lever.
During tactical courses I did try to place the shooters under some pressure to help that aspect of training be more real world. Initially under that pressure I noted that many shooters failed to return the lever to fire prior to reholstering.
It is not my intent (nor do I feel the other gentlemen wish to either) to "trash" that style of safety system. But it does indeed have some potential problems related to it not found in most frame mounted manual safeties.
I only added my comment to reinforce the valuable info just offered, and to remind folks it is a training issue they should indeed practice in my opinion, if they elect to carry a pistol with a slide mounted safety/decocking lever. I am a firm believer that what a shooter does in training is largely what they will do in real life. To me the time to have the problem and learn to correct it quickly, then find a way to avoid it totally is in training. If the problem occurs in a real world situation it may well become a deadman's lever.
Just my thoughts. I also hope they will help to reinforce the need more training for those using that system on pistols they have recently purchased. I feel it is much better to learn how to avoid such problems in training, than in a real world situation where the results could be tragic.
twoguns