imported post
Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Carrying in a SERPA, though, I wanted to dig a little deeper into all these allegedly observed ND'swith SERPA holsters, that were resulting in all these thigh and femur gunshot injuries (or would have had the ammo not been NLTA). What I found was, beyond one famous trainer's personal campaign, there was very little actual evidence to support these claims.
About four years ago, firearms trainer Paul Gomez posted a strongly worded and damning post about SERPA holsters having a severely-flawed design. He cited two ND's with Glocks, one that resulted in an injury to the shooter, and one involving an NLTA-modified Glock, where, under stress, the shooters had slipped their fingers inside the trigger guard after the trigger guard cleared the holster. He also cited another incident involving an NLTA-modified Glock, where the SERPA Autolock mechanism was completely siezed by a single piece of gravel "about the size of the head of a pin"; in fact, he said the pistol was wedged in place so tightly that two people could not remove the pistol from the holster, and in trying managed to separate the holster from the belt plate (citing yet another 'flaw'). Allegedly, the three screws that secure the holster to the belt plate managed to slip out of the slots in which they are located when the holster is properly secured to the belt plate or paddle. Allegedly, neither the holster nor the belt plate were damaged, yet the holster was separated from the belt plate, suggesting that the belt plate was so flimsy and weak that it allowed the screws to slip through.
Gomez implied that this problem was being discussed on several forums, and went on to post links to "other discussions" about these same issues on four or five other forums, without mentioning that those other threads were his, as well.
As popular as he was on the training/lecture circuit, it is little wonder that his internet posts got picked up and repeated in the manner of urban legend (you know - FOAF posts, "I heard", and claims referring to unnamed, unindentified accidents as fact rather than second/third/fourth-hand information). Four years later, the same incidents are still being presented, without citation, as first-hand accounts, or generalized as a widespread problem. I know of one well-known training school that banned SERPA holsters from its classes, PURELY, on the basis of Paul Gomez's postings, and not on their own experience.
It also seems that Gomez's comments have been picked up and repeated by some Safariland instructors, and there appears to be a certain amount of Chevy vs Ford-style rivalry between Safariland fans and SERPA fans.
When pressed, Gomez had to revise his statements to say that they were restricted to the SERPA used with certain Glocks, and that in most cases with other pistols, the holster worked without failure. He continued to insist that shooters under stress manage to end up with their finger on the trigger during the draw, in effect saying that people fail to draw from the SERPA holster according to proper training, but even then, in order for the described misuse to occur, one would also have to move the trigger finger away from the autolock button by more than an inch for the trigger finger to end up inside the trigger guard instead of on the slide.
About eight months ago, an individual on a police forum claimed that SERPA holsters are deadly, and said he was at the point of banning them from his department's classes. He referenced the Gomez ND cases, without citation or detail, claiming them as 'his' experiences, and the debris under the autolock mechanism, claiming it as 'his' observation during extreme FoF training. He also claimed to have contacted Blackhawk about this problem with no response. He also claimed that his training classes involved very hard use, and that his force-on-force training was not normal.
Pressed for details about his position, he eventually admitted to being a part-time, unpaid, volunteer constable whose regular job was as an owner of several businesses. Pressed for details about the training, he stated that the FoF training he claimed to teach was neither required nor regular training for his constabulary. When confronted by Blackhawk's SERPA product manager about who at Blackhawk the constable had contacted, the constable hedged at first and then eventually stated that he had spoken to someone at the Blackhawk booth at the SHOT show.
Surrounding these posts were replies by SERPA fans saying they would swear by their SERPA holsters, and Safariland fans saying they would stick with their Safariland holsters.
Amazingly, on-line gunrags repeating Gomez's dirt-under-the-lock claim, also happened to be advertising Gomez training classes or featuring Gomez articles.
All I can say is, at least on my Blackhawk Level II Serpa CQC Autolock holster, the screw heads that secure the holster to the belt plate are wide enough that they could not possibly slip through the slots in the belt plate or paddle, that there is enough clearance in the design of the autolock that it would be difficult to even get debris to take a purchase around or under the mechanism, and that I cannot draw from the holster and get my trigger finger into the trigger guard during the draw, without an extremely awkward and unnatural movement of my trigger finger. If I draw naturally, my trigger finger ends up extended along the slide, as it should be. It doesn't matter if I'm using the side of my finger or the point of my finger, it ends up well above and beyond the trigger guard, on the frame, against the bottom of the slide.
I think, over the last four years, that the SERPA holster has become a scapegoat for operator error. It is much easier to blame the equipment, than to admit that one screwed up - rather like all those gun cleaning accidents that involve ND's. Imagine - you actually have to adjust the equipment for fit, and use it as intended, or it might not work. Funny thing, that.
If the the ND problem peculiar to the SERPA holsters was as common as its detractors would like everyone to believe, then Blackhawk would be out of business from paying damages in lawsuits. Instead, I see Blackhawk picking up LEA customers for its Level 2 and Level 3 holsters, with a huge number in use by LEA's, military, and individuals, worldwide. That doesn't sound like a product with a deadly flaw. JMO YMMV, of course.
- tom
