CA's New Glock 43X: What We Know

A standard Glock 43X. Glock hasn't shown the California model yet. Photo: Kolomaznik, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).

A Glock is back on the California handgun roster. On September 29, 2026 the state Department of Justice added a pistol listed as the Glock 43X CA, the first new Glock since California barred dealers from selling what it calls convertible pistols on July 1.

The r/CAguns thread that broke the news ran a photo of a Glock 18C, the select fire model, under the caption that this is how the "manual safety" will look. It's a joke, and a pointed one. The law exists because of switches.

The joke as posted to r/CAguns on September 29. That's a Glock 18C, a machine gun no civilian can buy new. The California 43X won't look like this. Original photo source unknown.

We read the roster listing itself, the statute behind it and the forum threads where California owners worked it out in real time. Here's what's confirmed, what isn't, and what you can do with this news today.

Is the Glock 43X legal in California now?

The DOJ's recently added page shows one line for it: Glock, model 43X CA, 9mm, pistol, 3.41 inch barrel, added 09/29/2026. The detail page adds the material, steel and polymer, and an expiration date of January 1, 2027. Every Glock listing we checked carries that same date.

The barrel length matches the standard 43X. Glock's own spec sheet lists it at 3.41 inches.

It went on the list the same day as a CZ P-10C OR and four Henry revolvers. Nothing about the 43X CA was announced in advance.

What the asterisk and plus sign mean on the California roster

The roster uses two marks, and the 43X CA has one of them.

The asterisk means the gun was added "pursuant to the court's order in Boland v. Bonta." That 2023 injunction knocked out California's microstamping requirement, which had kept almost every new semi auto design off the list for about a decade.

The plus sign means the state considers the gun a machinegun convertible pistol under Penal Code 16885. Dealers can't sell those new.

Sixteen older Glock listings are still on the roster: the 17, 19, 22, 23, 26, 27, 34, 35, the SF models and the OD variants. Every one of them carries a plus. The 43X CA doesn't. It's the only Glock on the roster the state hasn't marked convertible.

Will the California 43X have a manual safety?

No, and you shouldn't expect to see one.

The statute does ask for a "positive manually operated safety device" on a new semi auto, defined by federal import standards. California has applied that for years in a way Glock's trigger blade safety satisfies. All sixteen older Glocks on the list have nothing else, and the roster still carries them.

What a new semi auto does need is a loaded chamber indicator and a magazine disconnect. The Ninth Circuit put both back into force while Boland is on appeal, and the case is still waiting on its 11 judge panel. A Calguns member summed up the mood the morning after: Glock's "trigger blade safety may actually suffice."

So the realistic expectation is a 43X with a chamber indicator and a disconnect added. Neither Glock nor the state has confirmed what the CA model looks like. Treat that as our reading of the rules, not a spec sheet.

How California's Glock ban (AB 1127) works

AB 1127 became law on October 10, 2025. It defines a convertible pistol as a semi auto with a cruciform trigger bar that can be readily converted, by hand or with household tools, into a machine gun with a converter that replaces the slide backplate.

From July 1, 2026, a California dealer can't sell, transfer or deliver one. The law carves out a list of exceptions, and the one most owners care about is the private party transfer. You can still buy a used Glock from another Californian through a dealer.

The law also opened a door. A pistol that was on the roster on January 1, 2026 can be resubmitted, without the chamber indicator and disconnect rules, if it's been modified only to remove the convertible features. The deadline is January 1, 2027.

The 43X was never on the roster before. Our reading is that it came in the ordinary way, as a new Boland submission, and that the resubmission route didn't apply. Calguns members landed in the same place.

When can you buy one, and what will it cost?

You can pre-order one now at Turners Outdoorsman for $599.99. You can't take one home yet.

A memo from a California retailer to its stores, posted to r/CAguns by October 1, says Glock has declined to share cost or retail pricing. The retailer created its own style number, PX4350203FRMOSCA, and priced it off the 43X it sells outside California, plus an allowance for the California conversion. Deposits are being taken on a retail price of $599.99, and the memo promises to adjust deposits down if the final price comes in lower.

The memo doesn't name the retailer, but commenters said it was Turners, and Turners has since put the gun on its website. The listing reads "Glock 43X CA 9MM, California Compliant," item number PX4350203FRCA, at $599.99 with a Pre-Order button. The page says the gun will ship as soon as it becomes available and gives no date.

For context, off roster 43X pistols sold through private party transfers have been going for $1,400 to $1,600 in California. A new one near $600 would be under half that.

The rest of what you'd want before buying still isn't public.

• Configuration. The memo's style number included "MOS," but the item number on Turners' listing, PX4350203FRCA, drops it, and the memo itself said the retailer doesn't know whether the approved model has the optic cut. Also unknown: whether it's a V pattern gun, and the slide color
• Hardware. How the chamber indicator and magazine disconnect are done
• Timing. No Glock SKU or ship date

Glock announced its V Series in October 2025 and discontinued most of its lineup on November 30. The slimline 43, 43X and 48 weren't part of that change, and Glock hasn't announced a slimline V model. Glock also hasn't published what the V redesign changed mechanically. Our Gen 6 and next models guide tracks what has been confirmed.

What CA gun owners are saying

The reaction on Calguns split two ways within hours.

Some posters went straight to the used market. Off roster 43X pistols already in the state change hands through private party transfers, at a premium. One poster said flippers had been asking around $1,400, and another said a listing had just gone up at $1,600. We haven't verified either price. On r/CAguns, one commenter said they were heading out to lowball every 43X listed.

Once the $600 deposit memo appeared, the mood turned. One commenter who paid $1,400 for an off roster gun said it would bother them for a long time. Another pointed out the trade: the off roster gun has no chamber indicator or magazine disconnect. A third predicted their own dealer would mark it up to $800 anyway.

One commenter also passed along word that the CA model will be a Gen 6. Nothing from Glock or the roster backs that up, so treat it as rumor.

Others weren't sold. One Calguns poster thought Glock was "likely too late to the game," after a year of new Smith and Wesson, SIG and other models reaching the roster under Boland. Another asked for the next one: "Come on Glock 48."

Glock bans in other states

Everything above is California. If you're elsewhere, your state's law is what decides whether a Glock is sellable, and that ground is moving fast.

Connecticut's convertible pistol ban was due to start on October 1, 2026. On September 30, the day before, Judge Kari Dooley blocked it with a preliminary injunction in suits brought by Glock and the NSSF. Our Connecticut guide covers the ruling.

One detail from that case bears on the 43X. Glock asked the Connecticut court to declare its SlimLine pistols, the 43X family, outside the convertible definition. The judge didn't decide it. California's roster, which lists the 43X CA without the convertible flag, is the closest thing to an official answer so far.

Maryland went the other way. A federal judge there refused to block its ban on September 25, and it starts on January 1, 2027.

What happens next

Glock's announcement. Turners is taking pre-orders on its own placeholder item number and price. Until Glock publishes the configuration, a real SKU and a ship date, nobody can deliver one.

Whether a 48 follows. It shares the 43X's slimline frame. If the 43X CA cleared without a plus, a 48 CA is the obvious next submission, though nothing has been filed that we can see.

United States v. California. The federal suit against AB 1127 and the roster is still open in the Central District of California. A ruling on DOJ's standing comes before any ruling on the merits.

Boland en banc. If the Ninth Circuit rules for the plaintiffs, the chamber indicator and disconnect rules go away for every new pistol. If it rules for the state, both stay. California never appealed the microstamping ruling, so that requirement is gone either way.