My Beretta 92A1 will fire if loaded and no magazine and the frame is inscribed with this warning. As a combat pistol this makes sense to me as you may wind up changing magazines or otherwise losing one that was in the pistol, but have a sudden need to fire the one round you have loaded. I was reading a couple of John Browning’s patents this morning (1910-1911) and he specifically required the slide catch to deactivate the trigger if no magazine is in the pistol to prevent the exact thing my Beretta 92A1 will do. I am not at home now . When I get home I will see if my Dan Wesson 10mm Specialist will dry fire with the magazine out (thumb safety off and grip safety depressed). I expect it will. I always assumed it would just like the Beretta but never tried it. Anyone know any back story on this? Do any 1911s fire with no magazine installed? If so, it seems JMB thought the safety element was more important than needing to fire in a rare situation. Perhaps with military application and the sheer numbers of opportunities for mishap, he was correct. I don’t see it as unsafe if using the other safeties correctly? For all I know later patent revisions removed this requirement and I just don’t have the history. Nor have I handled an early military version 1911 to see if they were built this way.