Glock Law Enforcement Only Guns - The Glock Model 48 Slimline 9mm is the ultimate small-frame combat pistol that any cop can master
Five years ago I tested the Glock 43, the second pistol in Glock's "Slimline" line of slim-grip pistols. 43 chambered for the 9x19 cartridge, along with its immediate predecessor, the .380 caliber Model 42, were not the first Glock pistols to achieve a smaller grip frame through the use of a single-round magazine. The G36, Glock's smallest pistol, chambered for the venerable .45 ACP, was the company's first single-stack design.
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According to our then factory representative, Craig Turner, the Model 36 came about thanks to my call in 1999. We just completed extensive testing of the Illinois State Police (ISP) pistol, which led to the selection of the Glock 22 as the agency's new sidearm. During this process I successfully argued that ISP should upgrade to the 9mm cartridge they had been using since 1967. Since so much of their footage was of vehicles on the road, I convinced the director that the .40 S&W round would better penetrate glass and metal bodywork. As a veteran Marine, the Director asked why a .45 sidearm wasn't even better.
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The Glock Model 48 9mm pistol is almost exactly the same size as a 1911 Commander-sized pistol and is actually ¼ inch thinner due to the grip. (Photo/Dick Fairburn)
When I handed him a Glock 21 in .45 ACP, he knew right away that our smaller soldiers could never handle a large frame. So the director told me to call Glock and tell them we wanted 2400 .45 ACP single action pistols. When I laughed he told me quite sternly that the statement was an order... go and make the call.
So I called Craig Turner with a request for a .45 pistol that would fit all hand sizes. Coincidentally, Craig was at a meeting with Mr. Glock at the Glock factory in Georgia. Craig came back on the phone a few minutes later and said that Mr. Glock had no intention of making a single-action pistol, but if we bought a Model 22 and he ever made a single-action .45 pistol, he would exchange us for a new one across. We all had a little laugh, ISP bought 22 and still carries them to this day.
About a year later Craig called me and invited me to the upcoming SHOT show. He said I would see a new Glock pistol that would be interesting to me. The gun was a Glock Model 36, .45 caliber single shot, but a concealed carry pistol, not a sidearm. Craig told me that my phone call asking for a smaller-framed .45 laid the groundwork for Glock's first single-stack pistol.
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When the 42 and 43 came out I thought they were great concealed carry pistols, but I was still looking for a modern handgun that little cops could use more effectively as a duty pistol. In fact, I printed the following letter as a sidebar to my 2015 Model 43 Review:
I just reviewed your new Model 43 Slimline 9x19 pistol and loved it (and bought it). As a 37-year-old Police Firearms Instructor, I've seen my job shift from 99% revolvers to over 99.9% semi-automatic pistols. Over the years, one common denominator has bothered me. Small-handed cops fight for work with handguns. Revolvers often came with large wooden target grips and we had to shorten them or opt for undersized "magna" style grips. When the semi-automatic movement came along, most agencies opted for high-performance 9mm or .40 caliber models with double magazines and wide grip frames. The grips of the .45 semi-automatic variants were even larger. The most common single-barreled semi-automatic, the 1911 series, had to be carried cocked and locked, giving uninformed administrators a bad case of nerves.
Almost anyone, with enough practice and determination, can handle a working Glock 9mm or .40 S&W pistol. But for many "lower status" officers, their performance is marginal, and a smaller frame would be a godsend.
PLEASE, oh PLEASE Mr. Glock, let Santa bring us a slimline version of your size 17 and 22 (and 21, by the way). Then we'll see how cops with below-average hand sizes improve their marksmanship, gun skills, and most importantly, their confidence.
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About a year ago, Glock added the Model 48 to its range, the first slim pistol with sidearm dimensions. I picked one up at the ILEETA conference this year and it was good, but my duties as Director of Public Safety left me little free time, and then COVID-19 cut my reach time even further. However, about a month ago I won a gun at the annual Friends of the NRA Banquet and it was a 48! Blue badging in an all-black livery, as opposed to the silver version of the entry-level 48s.
48 does not exactly correlate with 9mm/.40 handguns. With a barrel length of 4.17 inches, it is only slightly larger than the Model 19, which has a 15-round magazine. Important measurements show that the 48 with 10 balls is about 1/8th
Inches less trigger travel (backstrap to face of trigger) and about ¼ inch less thickness through the grip than the 15-round 19. These two size reductions make the 48 much thinner and significantly shorter trigger reach in the shooter's hand. This means smaller hands with shorter fingers can grip the gun normally and reach the trigger comfortably.
When I started, when we were all wearing caps and ball revolvers, the guards bluntly told the trainee that if they weren't "man enough" to hold their guns properly, then they weren't "man enough" to be a cop . Find another job.
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Even 40 years ago, when I first trained female officers, they had difficulty holding a .38 or .357 revolver with the large target stocks that were common. I had a couple of female officers try out my Colt Lightweight Commander, which was chambered for .45 ACP, and I quickly realized that the problem wasn't too much recoil, it was too much grip.
In 1967, the Illinois State Police was the first major US law enforcement agency to adopt a semi-automatic pistol, the Smith & Wesson Model 39, a single-shot 9mm pistol. When the agency started hiring female employees, the Model 39 suited them and most of them did very well. When the ISP upgraded to the S&W Model 59, a double pistol that fired almost twice as much, the women in the office (as well as the junior male officers) began to have problems on the firing range.
I have small hands but I can handle a large frame if I have to. I went through the original three day Glock transition school where I photographed the Model 20 with a full load of 10mm ammo. It's not easy, but I made it. As I enter my final year of active service as a police officer, I can carry the weapon that has always suited me best, an old Colt Lightweight Commander (made in 1956, just a year younger than me). But the heyday of 1911 design is almost over. Polymer-framed assault pistols now fill almost every police holster, and probably will until we get Star Trek's phaser. We can then "de-escalate" using them in the stun setting.
Glock was intended to extend the lower polymer frame toward the barrel, leaving room for a gun-mounted light. (Photo/Dick Fairburn)
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The 48 is not yet the perfect weapon for dual-pistol combat officers. It should have a short length of picatinny rail on the front of the dust cover to mount a light and double chambered .40 S&W cartridge. Sorry bullet freaks, despite your claims that the 9mm is "just as good" as the larger calibers, look at how it stacks up against a glass and metal case. Starting with a larger orb deals more final damage to the target after it passes the light cover. The 48 is already available in a MOS version with a sliding rear ready for optical sights, which I think will be more common on official sidearms.
Machined steel visors are very robust. The front profile of the blade allows you to attach the scope to anything stable for one-handed manipulation of the slide. (Photo/Dick Fairburn)
The first thing I did with my new Glock 48 was drive it to my old friend Richard Heinie's store, where he installed a set of his Ledge Straight-8 night vision goggles. I have my sights set on Dick for all my serious pistols because they're super-tough machined steel (no more than fragile plastic), super smooth and snag-free for concealed carry, and feature Trijicon tritium night inserts.
The "Ledge" variant of its sights was developed for a military unit that wanted a large, flat area on the sight sheet that was strong enough to allow one-handed operation. Unlike most night vision goggles, which use the familiar three-dot pattern of illuminated inserts, the Heinie uses a single barrel
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