Glock 19: Origin Story of a Legendary Pistol

by Scott Murdock
June 7, 2023

When Gaston Glock expanded his business following the success of its first handgun, the Glock 17, he didn’t try to cater to more cartridges or design his own long guns. He took proven success and made it a little bit smaller with a 4-inch barrel and 15-round magazines instead of a 4.5-inch barrel and 17-round magazines. The resulting Glock 19 functioned like its full-size predecessor, was just as reliable, and shot the same ammunition — it was just easier to carry concealed.

The idea wasn’t just good — it created a pistol that’s practically printed money for Glock ever since. It’s smaller than a full-size pistol, but large enough to carry as a duty gun (as many law enforcement agencies and military units have done with great success). It’s larger than a subcompact CCW pistol, but small enough to carry inside a waistband without printing. It’s affordable enough to be the first pistol you buy and tough enough to last a lifetime.

Odds are good that you’ve fired a Glock 19 — it’s one of the most widely used handguns in the US, with roles in the military, law enforcement, and civilian market. It’s been everywhere in the real world and in pop culture for decades...

Complete article with many photos:

**link to BRCC website removed**

This message has been edited. Last edited by: parabellum,

For an article that's purportedly about the G19's "origin story", it sure is short on origin stories!

No mention at all of how the G19 came about, as a trial run of a couple dozen (or fewer) guns for one or two LE agencies in March 1988, including 16 guns for the Kansas Alcoholic Beverage Control agents (one of which is shown below). The earliest of these prototype G19s were made from modified Gen 1 G17 frames, before dedicated G19 frames began being produced shortly thereafter. The G19 then officially debuted in June 1988, and entered formal production and distribution with a Gen 2 frame.

There are still 5-6 of these Gen 1 G19 prototypes out there in collectors' hands. Some of them, including the KS ABC guns, were turned in when the agency upgraded to newer guns, and were sold cheaply as standard used police trade-ins, but have since gone on to fetch $10k+ on the collectors market.

I thought the 19 came about at the request of Miami PD for a smaller gun than the 17. That may have been the 26 though. I specifically remember Reading about it In the GLOCK annual magazine.

Love mine. Use it for my LEOSA annual qualification and shoot just as well as the guys with their 17s.

I see clicking on the article just contributed ad revenue to a company that supported Hillary and then doubled-down on advocating gun grabbing. Cute.

The article itself says almost nothing about the origin of the 19 to boot. Rogue has it mostly right. They modified the molds right from jump, not the frames. At least, that's what I read somewhere years ago.

quote:

I thought the 19 came about at the request of Miami PD for a smaller gun than the 17.

The two dozen or so Kansas ABC guns were essentially prototypes, and rather rough ones at that. I got to see an actual example up close some years back. Pretty cool, but factory production quality it most definitely wasn't. Effectively a proof of concept for creating a compact G17, then delivered to KABC for their testing and evaluation. Since they were fabricated from existing Gen1 G17 components they're generally considered the only "Gen1" G19s ever made, even though they were not actual production guns. Fugly as sin because of the ad hoc manner in their construction, but it's the Holy Grail of Glocks. No one knows for sure how many of those prototype guns survived, but they do draw some crazy money just from their historical and developmental significance for one of Glock's most iconic models.

I'm not familiar with the Miami PD connection to the origins of the G19. But I'd guess that it was because a large department like Miami's showed serious interest in a compact G17, they were the ones that get the credit for providing the impetus needed for Glock to take its G19 from rough concept to an actual production product.

It’s not like a smaller version of a full sized is groundbreaking. The Walther PP and PPK go back to the ‘30s. More along the line of G17/19 size (duty vs compact), SIG had the P220 and P225/P6 10 years before Glock. If I could retain any of the Forgotten Weapons information I’ve watched over the years, I’m sure I could list a dozen other examples of pistols designed in multiple sizes decades before Glock made the G19.

I think where Glock set a new standard was the simplicity of the idea and execution.
They literally just shortened the slide and magazines a certain amount, not a real redesign of other parts of the gun. The larger magazines could also be used in the smaller guns.
They continued the concept in the 26 & 27 and other models/calibers.
What they really did where others had failed was to make these dead reliable, durable, accurate and relatively inexpensive.

quote:

Originally posted by BuddyChryst:
It’s not like a smaller version of a full sized is groundbreaking. The Walther PP and PPK go back to the ‘30s. More along the line of G17/19 size (duty vs compact), SIG had the P220 and P225/P6 10 years before Glock. If I could retain any of the Forgotten Weapons information I’ve watched over the years, I’m sure I could list a dozen other examples of pistols designed in multiple sizes decades before Glock made the G19.

How about we go back to 1920/1921 for the "Bolo" version of the C96 Mauser. Shorter barrel, smaller grip (therefore easier to conceal). However, it retained the same large (for that time) 10 round magazine capacity.

Oh yeh -- the Glock 19 was really a groundbreaking new idea!!!