…the common is often common for very good reasons!

Bingo. Exactly. Before someone makes a special case, they need to: try, adapt, or modify the standard. Everyone wants to reinvent the wheel, but they rarely manage to do so with out it coming out square.

Not at all disagreeing with what you said, was just musing on your final point. Thanks for the food for thought.

And to be even more clear, I’d definitely agree with you re the proper starting place not being “gun plus gadget” or even “gun AS gadget” (have you seen the Palm Pistol? Definitely a case of gun-as-gadget!). Of course there are people out there for whom the gadgets are both necessary and appropriate. But unfortunately, many people want to rush to the extreme solution before they even explore the common ones — not realizing that the common is often common for very good reasons!

What I am going to say is that the starting point shouldn’t be “some gun plus some gadget.” In the quest to be unique snowflakes people quickly jump to the conclusion that they need some totally non-standard gizmo before determining why they can’t do it the normal way.

Ultimately if you stack up enough problems you are going to need somebody put a gun into condition one for you, and you are going to have to hope that it is enough. If you stack on a few more problems even that will stop being feasible.

So my preference, when dealing with folks with marginal physical abilities, is to get them into a semi-auto if they are even vaguely capable of being taught to run a slide (which most are). It’s safer and more certain.

If they are able to run a slide then there is no reason not to run a semi-auto. I don’t think I suggested otherwise.

The classic traditional advice to the disabled is, “Get a revolver.” It’s not necessarily bad advice, but it’s rarely really good advice either. Of course every situation is different, so keep that in mind below.

Generally speaking, it is easier to teach someone a few strength-enhancing techniques for running a semi-auto slide than it is to teach someone how to pull a DA trigger to achieve accurate hits when they simply don’t have the hand strength to do so. That’s the reality. I’ve met dozens of people who thought they “couldn’t” run a semi-auto slide until shown how, and thereafter never had problems; but I’ve met just as many who had no ability to hit the target in DA mode because their hand strength simply wasn’t able to accomplish it — even after training.

Sure, there are ways around that. You can let them run the trigger with both trigger fingers, left and right working together, but where’s that leave them if they need to use that gun one-handed?

The other solution, the “obvious” one, is to allow them to run the revolver in SA mode. But as a firearms trainer who works with new folks all the time, it really gives me the creeping willies to allow someone with shaky hands and poor fine motor control to cock the hammer manually — not least because that same shaky-handed person with poor fine motor control is going to have a helluva time safely lowering that hammer if it turns out it isn’t appropriate to shoot for whatever reason.

So my preference, when dealing with folks with marginal physical abilities, is to get them into a semi-auto if they are even vaguely capable of being taught to run a slide (which most are). It’s safer and more certain.