I had a chance to interview Glock’s PR and Communications Manager, Kie Wagner, at the NRA Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee where Glock released the new Glock 43. Here’s a transcript of our recorded audio interview, only for readers here, on The Firearm Blog. Scroll to the end if you’d like to listen to the audio:

Chris: Welcome, everyone. This is Chris Cheng reporting for The Firearm Blog. I’m here in Nashville, TN for the 2015 NRA Annual Meeting, and one of the great products that is coming out at the Annual Mleeting is the Glock 43. If you haven’t heard of the Glock 43 it is Glock’s single stack, subcompact, 9mm pistol. Super exciting. I’m here with Glock’s PR and Communications Manager, Kie Wagner. Welcome to the Firearm Blog!

Kie: Thank you! I’m happy to be here.

Chris: Personally, I’m so excited for the Glock 43. I’m 5’9”, 150 lbs. I have carried the Glock 26 and the Glock 19; great carry guns. But for someone like me (I don’t wear baggy clothes or loose fitting clothing), I bought the Glock 42 last year when it came out. Love the form factor, and so for me it just seemed like okay, Glock is finally going single stack, subcompact, here we go! The 9mm single stack is bound to come out. Tell me, how excited has Glock been in the run-up to this big announcement?

Kie: Well, this is actually our most anticipated and highly desired product that we’ve ever introduced. This is the largest most significant release we’ve ever had. People have been asking us for this pistol for years, and now we’re finally introducing it. This is our busiest NRA ever, which is awesome. You know, we typically launch our products at the SHOT Show. But launching at the NRA really made a whole lot of sense to us because it’s geared towards concealed carry and this is really the ultimate, concealable, every day carry pistol. It’s just over an inch wide and the slide is just over 6 inches. And it’s so slim. Single stack. Six rounds. One in the chamber. This is what everyone’s been asking us for so we’ve been really excited about it. We’re all ready to get ours.

Chris: Fantastic! As any Glock owner knows, one thing that’s really wonderful about the Glock platform is all the firing controls are the same. If you’ve shot a 17, then you can shoot a 19, you can shoot a 43, etc., etc…  And I’m really excited to get behind the 43 and check it out. Tell me a little bit about what comes with the Glock 43 with respect to the magazines.

Kie: Sure. It’s going to come with two magazines. It’s going to have the flat standard and it’s also going to have an extended magazine. That doesn’t add capacity, you’re still just going to have 6 rounds. What it does is it gives you a pinky extender, so if you have larger hands it gives you a little bit more room for control of the pistol. And then when you’re really considering concealment, you can use the flat one and it’s even that much smaller.

Chris: Yeah. That’s a really, really wonderful thing to have both options for the magazines. Because, correct me if I’m wrong, I think this is the first Glock that comes with a magazine with a pinky extender, is that correct?

Kie: I believe the G42 does as well. We have optional magazines with pinky extenders, but this one comes with it, which is the great feature for all of our consumers.

Chris: Great! Yeah, that is the thing I was talking about. So when I got my Glock 42, maybe I didn’t choose the option of getting it with the pinky extension, but I bought some aftermarket pinky extensions for the magazine. I think it’s great that the 43 comes with one of each. You can buy extra pinky extension magazines if you want, correct?

Kie: You can, yes.

Chris: So what’s been the holdup? What’s taken Glock so long to deliver a product that everyone has been asking for? Give us a little bit of the behind-the-scenes. What has taken so long here?

Kie: Sure. That’s a question that we’ve been asked a lot. You know we’ve been working on this project for a long time. There are a couple reasons for that. One, and the most important one, is Mr. Glock, in the pursuit of perfection in our product, is not going to release a product before it’s ready. There is a considerable amount of market research and a considerable amount of engineering that goes into each product that we produce and it won’t be released until it’s ready. And this one is finally ready. So we’re excited about that.

And also, folks want to know why we came out with the .380 first.  A lot of people forget that we’re an international company. Our domestic market is extremely important to us, but in a lot of countries the 9mm is considered a military round and the .380 is much more extensively used. The .380 market research that we did made so much sense to us, but we also wanted to address the domestic market, so now we’ve introduced the 9mm version of the G42.

Chris: Wonderful! Well I, again, am so excited for the Glock 43. It is going to be my new carry gun. The 42, also fantastic. For those who are fans of the .380 Auto cartridge, it’s got its pros and cons. But for me, I prefer a 9mm for concealed carry. But again, it’s a personal choice. My body frame and size, and the kind of clothing that I wear, obviously everyone is different, but the main thing I think, is to always give consumers a choice. And so, from the bottom of my heart, thank you to Glock for giving consumers a choice.  I think the Glock 43 is possibly going to be the Gun of the Year.

Kie:  I agree with you emphatically! You know, we’re halfway through the year already, well nearly, and it’s the only thing that anyone wants to talk about. You know I just received an email from my social media team and they said, “Hey! In association with the NRA, Glock and the G42 have been mentioned more than anything else.” So we’re really proud of that. People have been really excited about this product and we’ll all be carrying it as well.

Chris: Great! Well thank you so much! That was Kie Wagner, the PR and Communications Manager for Glock, and this is Chris Cheng reporting for the Firearm Blog from the NRA Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN, 2015.