I am on the fence here, as I too had a gun shop in the 90's and sold a LOT of this brand guns due to price/value, and I had very few problems or returns.
so, the way I see things, is when you go with lower price tags , you some times get what you pay for, and the fit and finish are NOT as polished as you SOMETIMES get on higher end guns, that Taurus more or less copied!
and the end results can be guns that have some issue's
more on reliability than safety IMO
as lawyers have most firearms makers in check anymore and they are rather safe, just some can have feed issue's and or fit and finish issue's taking away some of the refinements of higher cost like models!
the way I always viewed less name brands price tagged guns, was it was like pick of the litter, some just worked better than other off the same run of productions
as things get made tolerances start to get closer to out of spec, and company's that are trying to make a lower price point item, tend to NOT re set things as fast or have lower tolerances to start with period!
production standards are NOT all the same !
and this is why, many get one "X" make model and someone else will get the same Make/model and have different results with how well it worked or NOT for them!
and this si also why I always tell folks, carry guns and duty guns should ne be the CHEAPEST one's you can buy, and they should be fully broke in and used, to ensure they work well, both dirty and CLEAN and with ammo you plan to use
I sold thousands of guns and seen countless owners shoot ONLY cheap ammo at targets and never really ever shoot the ammo they carry in there guns
I have also sold a ton of guns to law enforcement folks, and seen many buy guns based on CHEAP as to quality
NO lie, I have seen some buy HI point and like guns that they planned to carry on the job
IT was a BIG plus for ME< to see, how so many dept's in the 90's or so, started to have requirements in guns they ONLY allowed as to just anything one wanted to carry!
now as for Taurus, I have shot a few hundred of them or more over the decades, most all worked well for me, YES I have seen that needed to be sent back and or didn;t work well
But I can also say I sent back some very HIGH end guns as well for like reasons (wilson combat Ed Brown, colt, S&W, and all the rest to be honest)
bad one's get out on all of them, , and almost every maker has made a few models that were problematic!
overall, Taurus IMO, makes a decent gun that is both reliable and safe!
but you do need to test them to see what you end up with, !