I agree with Ross and Nolan. The guard just gets in the way and I think it's less safe to have it on.

I also never stand right behind the blade in case of a kickback. I have a pushstick that I cut a groove in so it could push the wood on both sides of the blade through. The right hand side was getting kind of chewed up and needed to be cleaned up, but I pressed on anyway. I was cutting a 1/4" strip and had just finished the cut when the strip got by the push stick. It shot out of the saw and hit a big cedar tree in the yard about 40' away and busted up into three pieces. I pulled out the piece that was stuck in the bark, it had gone .40" into the tree (I measured it).

If I had been behind it I'd be hurting for sure today (or worse). The blade not only caught the wood and shot it out, but it kept pushing it until the entire strip had gone through the saw as could be seen by the teeth marks along the entire length of the strip.

I cleaned up the end of the push stick right after that.

Dale