re: Semi Auto pistol: Safety or No Safety

Gekko,
From my personal experience, the XD is a fine self defense gun. I don't have any personal experience with the other two, although I've read favorable reports of both on the internet. I think your question is referring to an external safety lever as all self defense guns have safeties of some sort, even if they don't have an external safety lever. Re: the issue of external safety levers, my personal thoughts are:
Single action only guns, e.g. the 1911, should have an external safety lever as these guns typically have a lighter trigger pull (3-5#).
Striker type actions, e.g. Glock, don't necessarily need an external safety lever, as long as the shooter has adequate training and the trigger has not been modified for a trigger pull that is lighter than factory specs.
Double action only guns, e.g. Kel-Tec PF9 or the entire Kahr series, don't need an external safety lever.
DA/SA guns, e.g Beretta M92, get complicated w/ addtion of decocker levers and different combinations of the status of the action

The main thing is for the shooter to have a comfort level and adequate training for whatever pistol they choose for self defense. And yes, the most important safety feature on any gun is the one between your ears.

quote:

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Possibly the single dumbest and most dangerous line I've read on any forum.

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Little piece of advice. You can have as many safeties as you want on any firearm. If someone doesn't know what they are doing and doesn't know how to handle a firearm they are going to get hurt. I have personally been around people at shooting ranges that misfire thinking a round was not chambered with pistols that have safety's. My whole point was is that a safety only gets you so far.