If you recall, the Glock MHS submission had a thumb safety built into the frame. However, when Glock released the 19X to the civilian market it did not have the thumb safety. Manual safeties on Glocks are rather rare. Earlier this year we saw a cross bolt style safety in Taiwan. Chen Lee was the one who took those photos. Now he is in Thailand when he came across this Glock Thumb Safety used by Thai police.

Take a look at the photo below. There is a Glock 17 Gen 3 and a Glock 19 Gen 3 with factory Glock thumb safety.

Chen Lee was able to take the slide off and get a closer look at how the thumb safety looks like and functions.

Here is the Glock thumb safety in the SAFE position.

Here the safety is lowered to the FIRE position. This gives us a better idea of how the Glock thumb safety works. The cut in the safety prevents that U shaped block from moving rearward when the trigger is pressed rearward.

It appears the Glock thumb safety is only held in place when the trigger mechanism housing is placed into the frame.

I wonder what the U shaped box actually looks like and how it is installed into the trigger mechanism housing. From the photo above it looks like the U shaped box rides atop the ejector and the side of the ejector acts as a bearing surface for the safety.

I have not seen close up detailed photos of the Glock thumb safety before but a quick Google search brings up Ten Ring Precision who customize Glocks with a manual safety. Take a look at the photos I grabbed from their website.

Photo by Ten Ring Precision

Photo by Ten Ring Precision

Looking at the photo above Ten Ring Precision’s Glock manual safety is slightly different. They have what appears to be a Belleville washer and a triangular plate that interacts with the detent lobe on the safety. Which should give the safety a more positive lock when flipped to SAFE and FIRE.

The Glock manual safety is only $138 for parts and labor. Labor being cutting the slot for the safety lever and installation of the manual safety. Go to Ten Ring Precision for more info. Unfortunately, they do not have one that works with Gen 5 Glocks. Otherwise, I would like one on my 19X just to make it more like the MHS version.

The Glock Thumb Safety does not look too complicated.  A huge thanks to Chen Lee for allowing me to share these photos.