hello out there
 

brand new to the site. Was puzzled by my inability to get on, I must have made every error possible, the least of which was a lack of patience. Anyway I hope to discuss parkers with all of you.
I have a 20 ga from 1909.
My first question is, what is the reason for the safety to not be functional? I had a few people guess that it may have been made that way for serious trap shooters.
Any other ideas.

First.... welcome aboard!

I suspect it is in need of repair.

Pictures would be nice, we always love to see pictures. That might spark some more comments and discussion that may be helpful to you.

any 20 ga Parker will garner some interest. What grade is it? It will be marked on the frame water table, ie V, D, P etc, or go to the home page and look at the Parker grades and compare. If you list the serial #, someone will look it up for you--giving serial # is no biggie--not like giving out your SS#.
BTW, welcome from Wheeling , Wv

If there is a safety button, but it does not work, then it needs repair. Either there is an issue or it has been disabled. Not a good idea to have people think it has a safety, but have it not work properly.

Some Parkers were made with no safeties at all. But these guns would not have a button for one. For target shooting the auto resetting safety can be easily disabled, which would still allow for a functional safety to be used when desired.