NoBoxes

That's true for military and police (firepower concerns). Revolvers are still popular with private security (litigation concerns) and for home security (ease of use and maintenance) among others (e.g. hunters). I do believe that I also mentioned magazine safeties (applicable to pistols) and a trigger blocking technique that works well with many of both [reading comprehension xoB!] The reference to magnetic safeties was thrown in to cover all bases and the nostalgia didn't hurt.

My concern is that, as any psychologist can tell you, past human behavior is not necessarily a reliable indicator of future human behavior. Actually, any NASA employee can tell you that after their astronaut fiasco. When that cop decided to "trust" wolf with a loaded pistol, which could be fired after the flick of a safety, he was projecting an outcome that not even the best psychologists in the world can state with certainty. If this had happened between wolf and the cop at home; or, while out on a hunting trip together, the immediate consequences of something going wrong would have been limited to only the two of them. The general public; however, doesn't pay its police to take that risk (in this case a most unnecessary risk) with their lives. It is a betrayal of the special trust and confidence that the public has in its police officers that they will abide by protocols; or, at least the reasonable man principle so as not to unnecessarily "trust" nonaffiliated others with lethal weapons (not wolf, not you, not me ... not anybody).

It would be entertaining to see what the applicable statutes and regulations are governing both the officer and wolf under those circumstances as well as the policies of wolf's employer pertaining an employee's possession of a lethal weapon (regardless of who owns it) in a facility of that nature. While these factors may be mitigating, they wouldn't change the fact that neither the cop rendering his loaded weapon to wolf nor wolf's acceptance of it constituted sound judgment. I'm sure that wolf was flattered by the experience as many would be. Just goes to show you that flattery can get you anywhere, especially for a man in uniform.