After James Holmes opened fire on a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado in July 2012, Mike Full decided that concealed carriers needed a better way to carry a full-sized pistol with higher-capacity magazines. Along with friend and entrepreneur Steve Pantalemon, Full developed a prototype of a folding GLOCK in his garage and debuted it at SHOT Show 2017. The Full Conceal—folding GLOCK—is now in full production.
I checked them out at the NRA Annual Meetings 2018.
The Full Conceal takes a GLOCK 19 and modifies the grip, trigger, and trigger guard so that the grip and magazine fold completely under the gun, so you can slip it in your pocket and it won’t imprint looking like a gun. So, you have the benefit of ‘easily’ carrying a full-sized gun with a 22- and even a 34-round magazine.
I say easily in quotes because the Full Conceal is still too big to fit into small, tight pockets.
The videos on Full Conceal’s website demonstrate the gun being deployed very quickly; however, in real life, I do believe it would take some practice with the extra steps to get the gun ready to fire.
Full took extra care in the safety of his design as it is made to carry in your pocket without a holster. You can’t pull the trigger until the folding part is fully engaged on the firearm. You can, though, carry it folded with a round in the chamber.
I had them demonstrate how to operate it and they let me try it myself. Yes, it does take extra steps, but I believe with practice you would be able to perfect it quickly. You can even flip it open one-handed, or so the videos on Full Conceal’s website show.
To conceal, you push a button on the back of the grip, fold it down and then push up on the magazine to any position that is most comfortable for you. When you are ready to shoot, you just keep pushing the magazine up and it snaps into place smoothly.
They are in full production now. You can either buy the entire system from them or send in your GLOCK for modification.
The Full Conceal is a cool idea, but I worry about the extra steps and how easy it is to unintentionally sweep your hand in front of the barrel when engaging the grip.