I have three Glocks: a 30SF, a 21SF, and a 17. The 30SF came with a serrated trigger which I didn’t like (it cause discomfort for my trigger finger) so I replaced the trigger bar with a 21SF trigger bar which is smooth faced. Likewise the 17 trigger is smooth faced. I’ve been trying to figure out why some Glocks come with serrated triggers while others come with smooth triggers. It seemed rather random (being I only have three guns to obtain data from). Well I finally figured this out thanks to a thread on GlockTalk.
When a pistol gets important into the country it needs to get 75 points on the BATFE point system. One of the points is for having a target trigger. A target trigger is a fancy way of saying a serrated trigger apparently. Other points are awarded for things like size, caliber, action, etc.
Compact Glocks don’t have enough points to get important into the country due to their size. In order to make the required points Glock throws a target trigger into their compact guns (they also put adjustable sights on but those are swapped off for fixed ones when they arrive in America). The point system is also the reason for the thumb groves on the grip (that makes it a target grip apparently).
When the Brady Bunch and their minions claim the firearms industry is practically unregulated remember bullshit laws like this.
As a gun enthusiast, I am strangely in favor of the CONCEPT of the government regulating the overall quality and design soundness of guns to assure safe and reliable FUNCTION. The example of Chris’s pistol whose decocker became a additional trigger upon malfunction comes to mind. Of course the problems appear as soon as the anti-gunners attempt to use these laws to regulate MANNER OF USAGE instead of quality control. I have to wonder if the Gun Control Act of 1968 did anything but ensure that criminals had to possibly work harder to get a gun, but when they did (and always will do), it was a gun of more reliable quality that gave them the chance to not have misfires when they committed crimes.
In the case of my PA-63’s decocker acting as an extra trigger that really has nothing to do with quality control. It’s a machine which means it will break eventually. Additionally it’s a Hungarian pistol so the only thing our government could do via regulation is ban its import which means I’d have no source of a cheap beat pistol.
Government regulation for certain things always sounds nice until the realization comes that the price is always too high. Additionally our government spends time ensuring the most incompetent people are put in charge of things. My classic example is how “The Internet is a series of tubes” Ted Stevens was put in charge of Internet regulations.
I’d rather have the risk of unreliable or even dangerous firearms making it into the market than the risk of government regulations. At least if a gun is known to be dangerous or unreliable we in the gun community hear about it and the company that produces it goes away rather quickly. After all we are a very fickle bunch.