Back to the future

American Handgunner, July-August, 2009 by Massad Ayoob

On a more modern note, S&W has taken the frame-mounted manual safety for the they put on their .45 ACP M&P awhile back for the military contract that evaporated, and this year added it as an option for all sizes and all calibers. This option is, if I may quote Martha Stewart in a gun magazine, "a good thing." We are still seeing cops killed with their own guns, after being disarmed by perpetrators, and the manual safety is one oft-proven safeguard against that.

Glock, the 800-pound gorilla in the police handgun sales market, has updated their single most popular service pistol, the .40 caliber G22. The stippling on the grip frame is more aggressive, the better to lock solidly into a hand that is slick with rain or mud or blood. I suspect it will also afford a better grasp when wearing heavy gloves in bad weather, or nitrile gloves during the search that suddenly goes lethal of a potentially toxic suspect. V-shaped slide grooves on the new motif may also give the hand a more solid purchase when executing a clearance or an emergency reload. Glock has also extended its SF concept (Short Frame, allowing better trigger reach on the larger models) to the 10mm Glock 20 service pistol and Glock 29 compact.