"t-star", you're right. I remembered wrongly. The firing pin block on the 1911 originated in the Model 80 and not in the Model 70. The basis of the point I made wrongly was that it was recognized that depending on the grip safety was an inadequate defense. Of course, it can well be argued that careless or foolish handling of any firearm is what causes problems, and that will never be corrected by any mechanical device. Still, companies that make these guns must take some reasonable precautions, and in the 1911, the manual safety, grip safety and the firing pin block are what they do.
Personally, I find the built-in safety (and the overall design) of the H&K P7 far superior. John Browning was good, but mostly in terms of making pistol manufacturing far more economical than his contemporaries were able to do, and his designs, as well as others from that period, have for a long time not been state-of-the-art. And it's worth remembering that a Belgian engineer at FN took Browning's original design and made the High Power the favorite it became. Browning was very good, but there are a lot of other designers who are also very good.
