Are We Really Going Back to DA/SA Pistols?

In, what to me is a weird turn of events, the issue of the SIG P320 and its well-documented (multiple surveillance videos) self-starting problem has led to discussion in the gun community about striker-fired handguns and how we were supposedly better off when all the duty guns were the DA/SA configuration. As a person who lived through the era of the DA revolver as an LE standard duty gun and then saw the move to the DA/SA, I thought I might offer some of my forty years worth of experience.

Handgun Actions

I suppose the best place to begin is by laying the ground rules or at least defining what handgun actions or, more aptly, trigger actions really are. Many moons ago, I took a class and the instructor stated (I have witnesses), "The action of a handgun means how many different ways you can shoot it. If you can only shoot it one way that is single action if you can shoot it two ways, that's double action. There is no such thing as a double-action-only pistol."

Yes, a person who possessed a piece of paper authorizing him to train others told a classroom full of students that there was "…no such thing as a double-action-only pistol." I'm pretty sure Beretta, SIG, S&W, H&K, and Kahr Arms would have some thoughts on the matter. …