Modifying issue guns?

[9mmepiphany]

Wasn't it LAPD who did a study...many years ago...that showed that 90+% of their counter/sniper shootings was under 100 yards?

They had H&K put together a H&K 94 (9mm) carbine for them with the match trigger and cheek piece on the fixed stock...and of curse their QD scope mount. I had a chance to handle/shoot one at an H&K demo day...it was very cool and very accurate

[Notorious]

I am on the same Dept. that Retired worked for. Nowhere near his time on and experience though. When I came on, the first thing I did was add the Hogue grips w/ the finger grooves to my Beretta 92FS. Other than that, night sights, and CTC laser grips were the only other modification allowed.

And the only other on-duty gun even worth carrying was the HK USP .45/.45 Compact. However, within the last two years, my department has allowed the addition of a weapon light to the gun, and more guns (assorted Sigs and the S&W M&P 9mm/45mm).
We are in the process of switching out our old Ithacas with 870s w/ Surefire weapon light and Knox Spec Ops stock.

So, we've made some progress, but we still can't get our Dept to sign off on letters for our own patrol rifles (AR 15). It has been proposed and shot down (pun intended).

I mean come on! Chippies have them for Christ's sake! Why can't we!?

My previous department allowed us to buy the Surefire light forearm for the department 870... so we pay the $300 for it and install it on the department gun... to put in department rotation... which made zero sense to me. This was in 1995... and that was a lot of money to me... still is.

Anyway, 1 guy did it and he always got that shotgun when he worked of course, but I sure would hate to see what the other shifts did. Cops are not known to be kind to equipment that is not theirs.

LASD and LAPD used to be neck and neck with sticking to traditions and allowing nothing but the good ole Beretta and Smith pistols with the slide mounted safeties and the J-frame for backup... then LAPD got their rotation of new chiefs and Bratton finally blessed them with the Glock and the M3 light... so they are finally caught up to the late 90's.

With LASD... until recently with the S&W M&P, they had to buy the HK weapons light for the HK pistol if they wanted a rail mounted pistol light, talk about expensive lighting... I don't know if any deputies got a Beretta Vertec or M9A1 with the rails to put a rail light that was cheaper than the Surefire non-rail light that clipped onto the triggerguard. My friend was so stoked when he was able to put a Crimson Trace grip on his Beretta and I reminded him that I had the M3 on my Glock in 1999 and the M6 in 2003.

Any word on if Sheriff Baca will ever ever ever consider the Glock or is he still worried about it not having a "safety"?

[SoCalDep]

With LASD... until recently with the S&W M&P, they had to buy the HK weapons light for the HK pistol if they wanted a rail mounted pistol light, talk about expensive lighting... I don't know if any deputies got a Beretta Vertec or M9A1 with the rails to put a rail light that was cheaper than the Surefire non-rail light that clipped onto the triggerguard. My friend was so stoked when he was able to put a Crimson Trace grip on his Beretta and I reminded him that I had the M3 on my Glock in 1999 and the M6 in 2003.

Any word on if Sheriff Baca will ever ever ever consider the Glock or is he still worried about it not having a "safety"?

The Vertecs, 90-Two, HK USP's, and S&W 4566TSW have been approved since the early 2000's or earlier. The P2000's have been approved since around 2005 or 2006...hard to remember...While lights weren't approved until around early 2008 many deputies carried them anyway. CTC's were approved in the beginning of 2003.

With the P2000, M&P, and Sigs, the department has really begun the shift away from safeties. The dept is very anti-glock due to the necessity to pull the trigger to disassemble. While I know several range guys would like Glocks approved, I think personal purchase AR's are a more realistic prediction. This is particularly true after the success of the M&P at our department.

[Notorious]

Thanks for the info. Now that you mention it, I do recall hearing the issue with pulling the trigger to disassemble a Glock. They must really hate the Taurus 709 which requires you to pull the trigger and hold the trigger down before you can take off the slide. At least with the Glock, you pull the trigger and you're done.

[ckim34]

IMO adding night sights and grips should not be a big deal w most dept armorers

I dont know of any department that issues duty pistols without night sights.

[Gnome]

Any word on if Sheriff Baca will ever ever ever consider the Glock or is he still worried about it not having a "safety"?

I actually just spoke with our range guys a couple weeks ago about this. The Glock is still a No-Go. The "powers that be" are not comfortable with the trigger having to be pulled in order to disassemble the gun. They contacted Glock, and asked if they would be open to redesigning and making a batch that did not require the trigger to be pulled before disassembly, just for LASD. Glock said "Nope". Rightfully so.

In Sheriff Baca's defense, it's not him who does not want the Glocks. He has much more important things to worry about than the latest gun being approved. It's a few stubborn individuals in our Weapons Training Division/Risk Management who make the recommendation to the "powers that be", and if reasonable they usually sign off on it.

From what I understand, it is not Sheriff Baca himself who is opposed to the letter for Deputies buying their own AR 15. He likes to empower is subordinates, and left the decision to his Chiefs. Who in turn said "negatory".

I guess they weren't comfortable with approximately 10,000 deputies running around with ARs.

[brl0301]

I dont know of any department that issues duty pistols without night sights.

My duty pistol most definently doesn't have night sights. But the person before me did me the favor of painting in the rear sight with whiteout!

[retired]

I am actually surprised that we (lasd) went from the S&W Model 15 .38cal revolver to the Beretta 92f in the first place.

I think if some of the old timers from that era had their way, the dept. would still be using revolvers for duty use and you would still have to use the outside speaker due to a lack of a handheld radio.

[Notorious]

My duty pistol most definently doesn't have night sights. But the person before me did me the favor of painting in the rear sight with whiteout!

My issue doesn't have night sights, but we can buy our own to install on them... right... so the department can keep them. I opted to buy my own duty weapon with night sights so I can keep it when I am done.

The feds that issue revolvers still also don't have night sights on them.

[dkindrumr]

Laguna Beach issued 92fs with NS, I bough my own USP and added Meprolights

[cacop]

Back in the day when our list of approved guns was Smith, Beretta, and HK it specifically said the only mods allowed were sights and grips.

Now that we allow just about anything including 1911s the policy just states that we can mod our gus in accordance with a factory armorer's course. Pretty much the craziest any of us get is smoothing but not lightening through spring changes a 1911 trigger.

To be honest most guns will smooth up with use. I had a BHP with a trigger job and it really wasn't that great of an improvement. It wasn't like I was shooting wings off of flies after the trigger job. It's a combat pistol not a sniper rifle.

[DesertGunner]