Firearms Stack Exchange Archive

Why was the safety relocated from the frame to the slide on later variants of the Beretta 92?

From the Wikipedia article on the Beretta 92:

In order to meet requirements of some law enforcement agencies, Beretta modified the Beretta 92 by adding a slide-mounted combined safety and decocking lever…

Why would a law enforcement agency require this modification?

It happens that I own a Beretta 92FS and a friend of mine owns a Taurus PT92, which I understand is based on the original Beretta 92. I note that the Taurus has a frame-mounted safety, which is accesible from both sides of the pistol and also has a seperate decocking function. This means that it is possible for the Taurus to be “cocked and locked”. Not so for the Beretta. Is all of that common to the original 92 or did Taurus modify the design of the safety in a different way?

Answer 646

The reason that the Taurus PT92 has a frame mounted safety instead of the slide mounted safety/decock like its cousin, the current Beretta 92 series, is because of copyright and non-compete issues.

When the Brazilian military solicited for sidearms, the solicitation stipulated that the firearms had to be manufactured in Brazil. So, Beretta saw this being profitable and shipped equipment to Brazil to manufacture model 92s under contract in Brazil.

This manufacturer could not sell for export substantially similar clones of the Model 92 (the original Beretta 92 had a frame mounted trigger and slide lock safety) as part of the contract for equipment and when the contract ended, Beretta sold to equipment to Brazil. Shortly thereafter, Beretta changed the design of the 92, with a slide mounted safety (92S) and relocated magazine catch shortly thereafter (92SB). A concern then purchased the equipment from Brazil (and other manufacturers) and became what is now known as Taurus.

Since the PT92 retains the original design of the Beretta 92 and Beretta deviated from the original design with the 92S and 92SB, the firearms were no longer substantially similar and Taurus could export the PT92.

The police agency that requested the relocated safety was the Polizia di Stato (Italian National Police) who preferred a decock/safety in lieu of the trigger and slide lock safety. So, the original safety was deleted on the 92, relocated to the slide with the addition of a decock function, thus was born the 92S and the location of the safety/decock or decock-only on subsequent 92-series guns.


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