One of the more interesting firearms to have come out of Glock lately is the Glock 19X.

The weapon takes the slide of a Glock 19 and gives it a handle like a Glock 17. It’s a lot like the pistol Glock submitted to the military, a model which some people feel should have won the lucrative DOD contract.

It didn’t, but Glock knows its customers though. It knew there would be demand for this firearm, and there has been to some extent.

Glock also knew it could get a few government contracts, and its gotten at least one.

The Department of Justice has awarded a private vendor a contract to provide a California federal prison with new Glock 19X pistols. The contract was awarded on the 19th September by the federal Bureau of Prisons and is worth nearly $70,000. Described by the Department of Justice as ‘Glock 19X Coyote Gen5-9mm’, the contract is for 104 pistols with the contract award cost listed as $68,289. The new pistols were not purchased directly from Glock, instead, they were procured from RBA LLC, a New Jersey based company listed as a Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers. Initially, when the solicitation for pistols (Glock or similar equal) was posted on 10th September, the Bureau of Prisons were seeking pistols with a black finish. However, this was later changed to ‘coyote’ and the solicitation was amended on the 13th September. No doubt because the 19X is only available in coyote.

Of course, this isn’t a drop in the bucket compared to what Glock stood to make with a contract to provide sidearms to the military, but one thing the company has always been good at doing is leveraging what contracts it does have. Glock has never been the primary provider for military hardware of any type in this country, yet Glock is perhaps the most popular handgun manufacturer out there.

Part of how it did that was by leveraging its police contracts to not only attract other departments but to use them as a form of legitimacy that gives them a leg up on the competition in the civilian market. “Of course Glocks are good. Look at all these police departments that use them!”

Of course, it helps that Glocks are actually good guns.

In time, this contract will probably help the company generate more contracts for the 19X, though not as many as for their black offerings. Few departments want coyote guns, after all.

Still, I suspect Glock will build off of this to some degree, particularly in the western U.S.

Either way, though, I suspect the 19X will become a staple firearm for a lot of individuals, regardless of how many departments adopt it. I know that I want one, after all.