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Absolutely, but its also common sense IMHO to practice risk mitigation as well, especially when it doesn't cost anything extra.

Are holstered handguns "safe"?  

I guess that depends upon your definition of "safe".  Holstered handguns are not safe like a wallet is "safe" where its basically impossible for it to kill you regardless of how it's carried or what the orientation is when its set down on a desk of counter.  Are holstered  handguns safer than say a loaded an unholstered handgun bouncing around inside of a purse or a rifle on a sling off safe?  Sure, I would totally agree with that.

Ultimately at the end of the day a handgun is a firearm and holstered, unholstered, loaded, unloaded, on safe, off safe they need to be respected for their ability to injure or kill if a mistake is made by the operator or there is a mechanical malfunction/failure.

I personally carry a Glock not because they are sexy, have the best trigger, or because its the latest/greatest carry gun recommended by some guntuber.  I carry a Glock because they are very reliable and generally have a pretty good 40+ years worth of  professional use track record of not firing unless the trigger is pulled.

However I still don't carry a reliable firearm like a Glock appendix where any unintentional discharge has a 99% of it being a critical injury and/or fatal, I don't set it down on my desk pointing at my chest, and I carry it on my hip with the muzzle pointing down so that if there is an issue where it fires unintentionally due to either a mechanical malfunction and/or something/somehow gets inside the holster/trigger guard resulting in an unintentional discharge the odds are in my favor that the injury is minor and the round goes into the ground instead of myself or a bystander  99% of the time.  Sure if I am at Home Depot and I bend over to get a bolt from the bottom bin the muzzle points horizontal at a bystander but that is less than 1% of the time where my carry guns muzzle sweeps myself or a bystander.

Personally I like to put the odds in my favor when dealing with firearms.  I don't carry a firearm appendix pointing at critical body parts all day, I don't carry in a shoulder holster with the muzzle sweeping at every bystander I come across, I don't set loaded guns down on my desk or counter where they point at either myself or a family members, I don't carry guns like the Sig 320 that have a  history of going off without the trigger pulled or are not drop safe like most 2011s.

Should firearms go off by themselves, absolutely not.  Do they at times go off unintentionally either due to mechanical failure or operator error?  The answer is clearly yes they do.

Everybody has to make decisions for themselves regarding the additional risk they want to take on.  Its seems to be a pretty common theme here that if the risk of an activity can't be reduced to zero than there is no point in trying to reduce the risk by 90+%.  i.e.  Well I am going to flag somebody whenever I tie my shoes in public (that represents like 1 minute of my day) or I might shoot an inanimate object like my car seat so I might as well just point a loaded firearm at my femoral artery, my chest, or bystanders all day.

I don't know the details of what happened in this case but if it was the case where the firearm was holstered and set on a deck pointing at the owners chest it wouldn't have cost him anything to spin the holstered gun 180 degrees to point at the wall and he wouldn't have been shot when there was a mechanical malfunction.

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You conveniently left out the "something" getting flagged, which is what the rules actually reference, not a person necessarily.  You're arguing that the rules are immutable in every situation, and they simply aren't because reality doesn't allow for that.  Do you unload and clear your holstered firearm when you walk on a second floor? Of course not, even though you're passing up am opportunity to mitigate risk. Because it's in a holster.

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Nothing wrong with the 226.  I have several, and it has been my EDC for several years.  It was designed back when Sig had a different set of values.

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Your argument starts with the idea that the P320 is fundamentally unsafe and then tries to justify how huge numbers of people have managed to put them through the wringer without guns going off randomly left and right. That's not good logic.

The fact that so many people have used the guns safely very much has relevance. You can't just discount thousands of datapoints saying the gun is okay and focus on the single datapoint suggesting there might be an issue because that supports your belief.

- We know that that the vast majority of P320s have not had an uncommanded discharge.
- We know that a very small number of P320s have had an uncommanded discharge.
- We know that no one has yet managed to demonstrate a mechanical failure that could result in an uncommanded discharge.

That's all the evidence we have, and it suggests that there is no fundamental mechanical issue with the gun. We should certainly keep investigating for possible mechanical issues, but until someone can demonstrate one, the evidence is that something else is causing the problems.

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bullshit.

A holstered firearm is still a firearm and all rules apply.  I don't treat a holstered firearm any differently than one that isn't.

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dear god stop being ridiculous.

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Was anyone else sitting at the "desk"?

Was the choice point the muzzle at himself vs point it at the person across the desk?

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Your argument starts with the idea that the P320 is fundamentally unsafe and then tries to justify how huge numbers of people have managed to put them through the wringer without guns going off randomly left and right. That's not good logic.

The fact that so many people have used the guns safely very much has relevance. You can't just discount thousands of datapoints saying the gun is okay and focus on the single datapoint suggesting there might be an issue because that supports your belief.

- We know that that the vast majority of P320s have not had an uncommanded discharge.
- We know that a very small number of P320s have had an uncommanded discharge.
- We know that no one has yet managed to demonstrate a mechanical failure that could result in an uncommanded discharge.

That's all the evidence we have, and it suggests that there is no fundamental mechanical issue with the gun. We should certainly keep investigating for possible mechanical issues, but until someone can demonstrate one, the evidence is that something else is causing the problems.

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It's a dumb point to emphasize.

If the airman didn't take the holster off his belt at all, there's still a good chance this same gun discharges and hits his femoral artery killing him anyway.

The airman was complacent, and that's not good, but that's not the headline of this incident.

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Your argument starts with the idea that the P320 is fundamentally unsafe and then tries to justify how huge numbers of people have managed to put them through the wringer without guns going off randomly left and right. That's not good logic.

The fact that so many people have used the guns safely very much has relevance. You can't just discount thousands of datapoints saying the gun is okay and focus on the single datapoint suggesting there might be an issue because that supports your belief.

- We know that that the vast majority of P320s have not had an uncommanded discharge.
- We know that a very small number of P320s have had an uncommanded discharge.
- We know that no one has yet managed to demonstrate a mechanical failure that could result in an uncommanded discharge.

That's all the evidence we have, and it suggests that there is no fundamental mechanical issue with the gun. We should certainly keep investigating for possible mechanical issues, but until someone can demonstrate one, the evidence is that something else is causing the problems.

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If I recall correctly that was a contract requirement for the M9, not a law.  I could be wrong, but I don't believe that Sig was required to open a US plant for the M11 contract.  AFAIK, the M27 is still being made in Germany.

Quoted:When you say "uncommanded discharge" the only thing that runs through my head is "Fuck Sig."

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Whoever accepted the SIG contract should be court martialed for corruption!

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SIG already makes (or did recently make) an excellent polymer DA/SA auto in the SP2022. Physically, it doesn’t differ much from the 320, but has the all important safe action. A lighter weight P226/229 with arguably a better trigger than either. That’s the direction I’d go if I were SIG.

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In to learn how to carry a cased rifle safely.

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I can't believe folks are attempting to rationalize away and argue about whether the Airman tossed the pistol and holster on a desk or the like. Again, someone could do that ALL DAY LONG with a loaded 92FS on safe and it would be a complete non-issue. Goodness, I think some may need to step back and look at this maybe from some additional distance, and imagine (or remember) what it was like back when .mil had the Beretta, in comparison and application to the ideas being tossed about here. It's literally much arguing about the eggshells being walked upon. There should be no eggshells involved with duty pistols.

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Their new direction will be to avoid bankruptcy.

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I can't believe folks are attempting to rationalize away and argue about whether the Airman tossed the pistol and holster on a desk or the like. Again, someone could do that ALL DAY LONG with a loaded 92FS on safe and it would be a complete non-issue. Goodness, I think some may need to step back and look at this maybe from some additional distance, and imagine (or remember) what it was like back when .mil had the Beretta, in comparison and application to the ideas being tossed about here. It's literally much arguing about the eggshells being walked upon. There should be no eggshells involved with duty pistols.

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At this point in my life I have never bought a single SIG-made firearm and now that we are past the days of the 220/226 I don't understand you people who even know what they make anymore, much less actually buy them.

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Unloaded in the case.  Take the bolt out if you're paranoid.

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The only ND we had at the last range job was a cased rifle.

A servicemember who was going shooting with us had just returned from the GWOT and had been there when the "no chambered round" doctrine for some units was "lets have the mag in, bolt back and locked".  

He cased a rifle this way.   And thankfully it was a "direction is evident" shaped case.  While we were driving this pile of cased guns to the firing line the bolt closed in the shut case.   That case was pointed at an ammo can full of stuff, and it was intentional that that thing be the place muzzles go.  It was a 40mm ammo can and full of equipment.  

Upon pulling said rifle out of the back of the vehicle, an empty shell casing inside the soft case depressed the trigger and the now chambered rifle went off in the back of the vehicle.  Because I knew where the muzzle must be in this case for a rifle, I decided to not pull it out by the muzzle end.  I'm alive today for that reason.  

The 40mm ammo can and the shit in it did catch the round.  Lost about $200 in offroad stuff.  

I now tape cases on the end the muzzle will be in if they are meant to take a whole rifle and don't have a dedicated muzzle direction due to case build.  

Checking a cased rifle that you personally observed be unloaded from one vehicle and loaded into another without any handling of the gun inside, brought by an experienced and known shooter...didn't seem to be a thing at the time.  Now it is.

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No, b/c it's impossible.  I lived in a two story house of wooden construction.  If I went upstairs, and my holstered CC piece discharged, it could have killed FW_wife if it didn't take out my knee first.  The 4 rules of gun safety have never applied to a holstered firearm b/c it becomes impossible to carry.  A holstered firearm is presumed safe, which is the entire problem w/ the SIG P320 - it's going off in holsters.  Any other gun in a proper holster, and our Airman would still be alive today.  That's WHY he had no concern about tossing it on his desk - we have several centuries of practice of pistol carry, and the pistol/holster system is supposed to render the firearm safe while in the holster.  Leather strap over the hammer, under the hammer, protection of the trigger guard, etc.