Don't Modify Your Carry Gun
Back in 2019 I attended the MAG 20 class by Massad Ayoob. It’s an intense 2 day class, 10 hours a day with a working lunch all about the legal aspects of using deadly force. Before I went, I did a ton of research about him and his class so I could formulate a list of questions. One of the main questions I wanted to ask was about modifying your defensive weapons. Ayoob preaches that you should leave any gun you might use for self-defense as close to factory specs as possible. As someone who constantly looks for new gear and accessories, I had some issues with this point so I was fully prepared to argue with him when he brought it up.
The class progressed and we finally got to the subject and I patiently waited while he spoke about how your gun should remain stock for legal purposes. Once Ayoob began to roll out his points, all of my well crafted arguments slowly went out the window. I quickly learned that, while you may not go to jail over a lighter trigger, you may have to defend yourself in court as to why you chose that option. If you are ever involved in a defensive shooting, the police will take your firearm into evidence and the prosecution will go over the gun with a fine tooth comb. If you have any modifications on that gun, you will need to articulate why you made those modifications. Some are easier to defend than others. If you have a light, it’s easy to articulate that you are able to use that light to identify threats in low-light situations. Lasers are the same way. You can say that you are able to make sure your shots go exactly where you want them to and the laser helps with that. Having a lighter trigger will be harder to defend. The prosecution could spend several hours or even days trying to argue why the lighter trigger was there to make it easier to kill your attacker (victim). The $100 trigger you dropped into your carry gun could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.
This also pertains to certain cosmetic modifications. Punisher logos, skull and crossbones, along with other phrases could come back to haunt you in court. Take for example the Daniel Shaver case in Mesa Arizona. Shaver was on a business trip as a pest control technician and was showing his scoped pellet rifle to some friends at a hotel. Someone in the parking lot saw them pointing the rifle on their balcony and called the police. After some time, the SWAT teams shows up and begins ordering Shaver out of the room. It was later discovered that Shaver was 3 times over the legal limit so he was extremely intoxicated which would add to the unfolding disaster. After several confusing instructions, Shaver begins crawling towards the officers and reaches back to pull up his falling shorts. Philip Brailsford, part of the SWAT team, fired 5 shots, killing Shaver instantly. Brailsford was eventually charged with 2nd degree murder after the rifle he used was found to have this on the inside of the dust cover.
A $5 dust cover was a central point of the 6 week trial and cost the taxpayers of Arizona millions in legal fees.
If you choose to modify your self-defense gun, make sure you can articulate the reason for every modification. If the modifications can be explained as making you and everyone around you safer in a defensive situation, then have at it. If they’re there just to look cool or because of “muh rights,” you may want to take a second look.