A safety device that is permanently attached to the handgun, either during manufacture or by the user. These include such devices as loaded chamber indicators, magazine disconnectors, manual thumb safeties, transfer bars (a type of drop safety), grip safeties, built-in locks and personalized guns.

A safety device that is added externally to the handgun to provide a mechanism for storing or securing it. In order to fire the gun, the device must be physically removed from the gun, or the gun must be removed from the device. E xamples include trigger locks, barrel locks and lock boxes.

A safety device that automatically engages when the handgun is not in use, without any action by the user, and then automatically disengages to allow the gun to be discharged. Examples include magazine disconnectors, transfer bars, firing pin blocks, grip safeties and personalized guns.

A safety device that requires the user to actively engage or respond to the device for it to be effective. There are various gradations to these types of devices, from those that are totally dependent on the user, such as trigger l ocks, to those that act automatically but require a user to respond to the device, such as loaded chamber indicators.