My Tumultuous Affair with the G19

Growing up as the son of a police officer that worked a rural beat in the 80's and 90's, it is logical that the majority of my handgun exposure growing up was with revolvers.

I'm fact, until I became a peace officer myself, I could count on two hands the number of semi-autos I had fired. I knew how they operated, and was comfortable enough with them, but I had never truly seen the appeal.

Enter my first range day with my department: the Firearms instructor reached into the lock box on his truck, handed me a black clamshell box with "Glock" written on it, and 2 boxes of ammo. Now, I was a lucky one. Guns in my department get reissued. If an officer decides to move on to another department or profession, the gun gets turned in, and will be issued to the next new hire who walks in the door. For some unknown reason, I got a factory new gun. Luck of the draw, I guess.

Amyway, when I stepped to the line and ran my first POST course, I qualified with a 119/120, an almost perfect score. Some officers can go their whole career without shooting a 119. Now, yes, I am a shooter, and that plays a part, but having a decent gun helps the process immensely.

And so I fell in love.

But, as we all know, love can fade. And it did for me with the 19. Over about several years, the 19 was a constant companion, but the more I carried it, the more I saw it's shortcomings as a duty weapon. A slightly longer grip would be easier to hold. It would give you more rounds on board. A longer barrel would give a better sight picture.

So I spent a few years being resentful of what the 19 was not: the perfect duty gun. It just seemed like the bastard child to me: slightly too small to make a good duty gun, slightly too big to make a good off-duty carry gun. It could be pressed into either role, but wasn't great at either.

So I bought a 17. Put a TLR-1 on it. And you know what? THAT is pretty much a perfect duty gun (for me. I know everyone has an opinion). I love it. I truly do. And I had a single stack 9, a Kahr, which was a great (off duty) carry gun.

But recently, over the past few months, I have been thinking. I live in a city with a high crime rate. I live in a great neighborhood, but bad neighborhoods are not far. In my Kahr, I had 8 rounds on board, with a spare, 16. That's what the 19 holds, WITHOUT a spare.

So I started considering carrying the 19 off duty. I have in the past, but not much. That's kind of odd, because even though I have mostly only carried the gun on duty, I still have managed to collect a large number of holsters for it over the years.

Since I last carried the 19 off duty, I have really dove into holster making, and have an idea of what makes a good concealment holster.

And you know what? With the right holster, you can conceal a G19 under a t-shirt. It only took me the better part of a decade to draw the conclusion that literally millions of concealed carriers across the nation have already realized. With the right holster, the G19 is about the perfect concealed carry gun! (I do maintain that the G17 is a better duty weapon, though!)

I have been carrying the 19 lately in a modified Aker Flatsider. I removed the retention snaps, and refinished the edges to give me a cleaner draw from concealment. I will get around to making a holster that suits me better, but this one is pretty darn close to right for me.

My department is getting rid of a lot of the gen 3 G19s soon and upgrading to gen 4's, and will be giving us the option to buy our gen 3 guns. If I can get the scratch up, I'm gonna buy the 19.

It's the perfect concealed carry gun, after all.