Customer Reviews

Human Factors Issues in Handgun Safety and Forensics

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Very thorough and full of well written, concise information about the human/gun interaction, this book is a must read for anyone who shoots, deals, designs, trains or interacts with guns at any level.

This book has great information for firearms trainers most of all, but it also applies to designers of firearms and new students. After 8 years of being a firearms trainer myself, I find that new shooters are the easiest to "mold" into safe, responsible shooters. Whereas, so-called "experienced" shooters often have poor shooting / safety habits that they sometimes desperately cling to. Perhaps this book would serve to open their eyes, as well.

In summary, if you shoot handguns or design them, buy this book.

I am a mechanical Engineer by degree and a Systems Safety engineer by profession. I also have over 25 years experience shooting handguns for sport and self defense. I am well acquainted with the issues around handgun design and training. In my job we often use help from Human Factors Engineers to improve product development and systems design.

I had several expectation from this book:
1. That it would be directed to experienced firearms trainers, designers and regulators.
2. That it identify the main problem areas in training systems, designs, and regulations.
3. That it provide clear guidance for trainers for matching existing handgun designs to users based on their capabilities, physiology and needs.
4. That, if practical, it recommend a minimum set of safety features in handgun designs.
5. That it propose changes in designs to improve usability and safety.
6. That it suggest how the role of the regulator be changed to expedite improvements.

I rated it two because, of my six expectations, it only met 2, 6, and half of 5. As 3 and 4 have a lot of potential to immediately impact safety, I felt their absence was a major gap.

Even though the book states it is directed at firearms professionals, it begins with a good bit of material on the history of firearms and ammunition, which was space that could have better been devoted to answering some of my key questions.

The findings and recommendations that it does make are a bit scattered and aren't organized particularly well, which I thought surprising in a book co-written by a human factors engineer. It does manage to avoid being excessively political, however the rather cheery way it presents writing non-existent "smart gun" technology into law made me a bit uneasy.

It's not all negative. There are some excellent points brought out in the book:
1. Importance of training (at least initial training - discussion of retained training was a little light)
2. Importance of safe storage
3. Importance of consistency in design and transportability of training

but these are issues that are clearly obvious to any thinking person.

On the other hand, there was a lot of discussion about trigger pull that didn't really settle into a clear picture of what was important and how the trade-offs should be managed.

I think the authors know their material, have taken a stab at a worthy subject, but fallen short of the mark. It would be possible to condense this material down into a decent sized magazine article, or short series, and not miss anything critical. Hopefully someone will consider the other issues this book does not address and come out with something a bit more comprehensive.