Before reading the article, I interpreted the headline to mean a permanent disabling. Like disabling a tank. Or a disabled person. Merriam-Webster may agree with you, but I felt the wording was misleading
Actually your interpretation of “Permanent disabling” is the grammatically correct interpretation here, because “if” is used. To indicate concurrent behaviour we need to see a sentence using one of these: when, while, or whilst.
No it doesn't. I can disable the safety catch or disable the alarm just fine without breaking them.