Most of the shooting schools I’ve been to (and many I haven’t gotten around to yet) ban Blackhawk! Serpas holsters as being simply too dangerous to use.

James Tarr, co-host of Handguns and Defensive Weapons and Patrick Sweeney, Handgun Editor of Guns & Ammo attempted to film a video defending the Serpa holster as a safe holster to use. Unfortunately, they accomplished just the opposite, and Sweeney came astonishingly close to shooting himself in the process.

If you watch the video below, Sweeney’s draw at 2:27-2:31 sees his finger slip inside the trigger guard and make contact with the trigger while the gun is pointed down his right side and leg. He appears to come within a fraction of an inch of creating the exact same self-inflicted wound that made Tex Grebner famous.

Folks the Serpa is a bad design. It doesn’t fit many people well, encourages people to make bad choices, fouls easily, breaks easily, and is essentially an accident waiting to happen, as Tim Harmsen of the Miltary Arms Channel made abundantly obvious five years ago.

If you want a retention holster and want to stay in the same general price range, you can get a much safer design in the Safariland ALS Concealable series.

Be smart. Be safe. Stay away from Serpas.