He Ain't Heavy, He's My Clock

Guns Magazine, Oct, 2001 by Massad Ayoos

Is the Glock a DAO pistol? Cops who want their department to adopt it say yes. Those who don't like the gun aver that its trigger pull is too short and light to be called "double action," a term generally associated with a long and heavy pull. BATF says it's DAO, and for many, that's all that matters. The manufacturer itself avoids the term and calls its pistols "safe action" guns.

A bit of history is in order. In the mid-1980s, Miami cops perceived themselves as losing the firepower race with their six-shot .38 revolvers versus the hi-cap 9mm autos they were seeing as the trademark gun of the dope dealers. They asked for the same kind of hardware.

The chief didn't like the idea, but went on record as saying he'd adopt a 9mm auto if the troops found one that was double action only, heh, heh, heh. When asked about making one, the big players -- Beretta, SIG and S&W -- blew off the concept. Glock, however, enthusiastically provided prototypes of its new design, and the BATF picked an opportune moment to declare the Glock pistol DAO, and for the troops it was "heh, heh, heh" back. The 18-shot 9mm Glock 17 passed all tests, the chief had no choice but to adopt it as standard issue for Miami PD, and the ball started rolling. By the early 90s, the Glock was the dominant brand of police pistol in the U.S., a market trend that has only solidified.

Beretta, SIG, and Smith jumped on the bandwagon with DAO variants of their traditional double action first shot guns. Thus, ironically, the question of whether or not the Glock is DAO must be seen in light of the fact that Glock, in a real sense, created the entire modern DAO trend.