With a whopping 20,000,00–, yes, **twenty million**—specimens of all models and calibers made worldwide since 1982, Glock is the world’s most widely-produced pistol brand, and while it was the 9mm Glock 17 that got the ball rolling, the second ship of the class—metaphorically speaking—was the 9mm Glock 19, and the G19 helped build upon the brand’s initial momentum and remains extremely popular 37 years after its debut.
Accordingly, this writer will briefly cover the history of the Glock 19, as well as my own experiences with the pistol.
Glock 19. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Glock 19. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
GEE-WHIZ TRIVIA NOTE: Regarding pistol production rankings, the Russian Makarov comes in second, with a mere 5,000,000 made.
Glock 19 History in Brief
The G19 debuted in 1988, six years after its G17 big brother.
The Glock 17 had already created quite a stir; loved by private citizen gun owners and cops, the latter of whom had started transitioning en masse from revolvers to semiautomatic pistols that decade; hated by leftist politicians and media pundits who falsely claimed that the polymer frame made it a “terrorist special” meant to defeat detection by X-ray machines at airports. So, naturally, when a “little brother” iteration of the Glock pistol came out, it immediately garnered everyone’s attention.
One of the first major law enforcement agencies to give the G19 a street-proven reputation was the New York Police Department.
Though uniformed NYPD officers were still stuck carrying .38 Special double-action (DA) revolvers until 1993—and in those tacky-looking Jay-Pee holsters to boot—certain detective units were authorized to carry the Glock 19, planting the seeds for the eventual, long-overdue department-wide transition to autopistols.
Fast-forward to 1990, and renowned antiterrorism and special operations expert Leroy Thompson made the case in a cover story for Combat Handguns Magazine that the Glock 19 was indeed the ultimate combat handgun.
Leroy’s case back then for the G19 was that it was delightfully compact and lightweight—the light weight being thanks to that same polymer frame that the pols and media talking heads despised so much—yet held the 15+1 rounds magazine capacity as heavier, full-sized all-steel or steel & alloy “Wonder Nine”—double-stack capacity 9mm autopistols, that is—such as the Beretta 92F, SIG Sauer P226, and CZ-75.
Its compact barrel and frame sacrificed only two rounds of firepower compared with its G17 parent gun. Leroy also praised the accuracy, reliability, and robustness of the smaller pistol.
Since then, plenty of other compact, high-capacity semiauto pistols have come along, but the G19 is still going strong.
Personal Experiences with the G19
As our dear readers who’ve been with us since 2022 can vouch, my bona fides as a certified Glock fanboy are quite well-established.
I own a G17 and G26 in 9mm, a G21SF in .45 ACP—a “tack driver” according to friend and fellow military & law enforcement veteran Lou Chiodo—and even a G38 in the short-lived .45 GAP caliber; I also used to own a G36 .45 ACP but eventually traded that one away.
So, you may be surprised to learn that my hands-on shooting experience with the G19 specifically is rather limited.
My first time firing a G19 was at the tender age of 14, when I fired a range rental gun at the Firing Line Indoor Shooting Range in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley.
To be honest, that first experience was a decidedly underwhelming one—kinda like my first time trying out the Browning Hi-Power the month prior—but then again, I had only started learning a few months earlier, and my marksmanship skills were a long way from being perfected.
In any event, unlike, say, the Beretta 92, Beretta PX4 Storm, and CZ-75, the Glock wasn’t “love at first shot” for me; it took time for that somewhat spongy trigger—the sponginess stemming from the safety on the trigger—to grow on me. But once I did get the hang of that trigger, I was converted into a True Believer.
Glock 19X For U.S. Army. Image Credit: Corey Ritter.
Accordingly, once my conversion was complete, every time I picked up and fired a range buddy’s G19, it was a wholly positive experience.
I just haven’t bothered to buy one yet, since I have several other gats higher on my Bucket List. I also evaluated the Glock 19X for this publication back in 2023 and thoroughly enjoyed it, but that’s actually a different species of animal, as it mates a G19 slide with a G17 frame.
Want Your Own?
According to True Gun Value, “A GLOCK 19 pistol is currently worth an average price of $596.08 new and $435.83 used. The 12-month average price is $605.54 new and $443.91 used.” Meanwhile, used/surplus gun market websites such as Gunbroker.Com currently have several listed for under $300.00, so act fast if you wanna take advantage of these great deals on a classic firearm!
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (with a concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He is also the author of the book “Five Decades of a Fabulous Firearm: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Beretta 92 Pistol Series,” the second edition of which was recently published.
