As reported yesterday at The Firearms Blog, a major law enforcement agency in Brazil — the São Paulo State Military Police — is returning ninety-eight thousand Taurus 24/7 pistols. You probably don’t speak Portuguese but I trust the typical pistol-training.com reader will be able to figure out why:
The discharges occur even when the manual safety is engaged and without any contact with the trigger.
There has been no response from Taurus USA yet but, more importantly, no reports of any similar problems with 24/7 pistols sold in the United States.
A discussion at TaurusArmed.net suggests the possibility that the entire thing may be a political setup and that the malfunctioning guns could have been abused or even purposely tampered with. While that’s certainly not conclusive it is worth keeping in mind before panic sets in.
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
Single-action striker-fired with enough vertical play in the slide?
Considering Brazil’s political corruption problems, this “expose” can mean nothing at all.
Even here in the US of A, politics can cloud firearm acquisition contracts. Look at the mess Glock endured in New York with city leaders carrying those guns back when the city “banned” them in the 80s.
When they put the manual safety on and shake the pistol it fires a round. However, in the video, I didn’t see any recoil, an empty case, or the slide cycle. In all of the other examples of the gun going off, the slide cycles (or locks back) and you can see the individual handling the pistol experience the recoil from the pistol firing. There is clearly a problem with those pistols, but the example of the gun firing with the safety on looks somewhat fake… at least it does to me.
Strange things are going on in Brazil these days so it is possible that the recall is phony. However, one has to assume that the recall might be legitimate as well. What a mess.
Timothy,
“ However, in the video, I didn’t see any recoil, an empty case, or the slide cycle.”
A lot of frame-mounted safeties function as slide locks when engaged. Dunno about the one on the 24/7.
That’s a good point. I came into comments to wonder about the same thing Timothy did. I only watched it once, but I thought I saw more of the muzzle blast the first time, too. I wondered if the Brazilian TV station decided to add a sound the second time, but it hardly seems necessary.
Holy yikes, that’s a little scary.
Tam,
I agree. It could be something akin to a 1911 manual safety. I’m not sure if that is how the 24/7 operates, but there still was no observable recoil when they “discharged” a round with the safety on. Like I mentioned earlier, these pistols obviously have a problem, but how that problem arose isn’t clear. That part of the video is at least questionable.
The third “discharge,” the one with the safety engaged, does appear to be nothing more than dubbed-in sound with no actual recoil or muzzle blast. That doesn’t disprove the claim that it can fire with the safety on, but it certainly leaves one questioning the overall integrity of the news report.
Not sure the model of pistol, but a co-worker of mine had his Taurus fly out of his waistband during a foot pursuit. Gun went off, safety was on. The bad guy gave up after he heard the shot. The bullet bounced down the street and shattered out the back window of an SUV. no one was hurt. I will never buy anything from Taurus.
I have heard tales of Millenniums not being drop-safe, including some lawsuits, and the 24/7 is based off the Millennium action, IIRC, but I’m spitballing here.