The SW99 and Walther P99 were striker-fired pistols that duplicated the feel of the traditional double-/single-action semiauto, but many shooters did not care for the decocker button that was located on the top of the slide. It is noticeably absent on the SW990L slide.

The Glock, regardless of the model designation, is a striker-fired design, but when its trigger mechanism is at a position of rest, the striker is partially precocked. The striker is not fully cocked--it isn't even halfway cocked--but it is partially cocked. Most observers agree it is cocked about one-third of the total distance the striker must travel to gather sufficient energy to ignite the primer. The action of the trigger pull "cocks" the striker the remaining portion of its travel before sear release. The Glock is incapable of recocking the striker if the round in the chamber is a dud. This is because a subsequent trigger pull cannot cock the striker for the first third of its "cocked" distance.

There are many pros and cons to "restrike capability" in a semiauto pistol, and most of them are not germane to the following point: The inability to recock the trigger and firing mechanism through use of a subsequent trigger pull runs counter to the operation of the traditional double-action revolver. The earlier Walther PP and P-38 designs had a long-travel trigger-pull restrike capability and followed the operation of double-action revolvers.

When the Glock design first appeared on American shores, the BATF ruled the Safe Action pistol was a double-action design using the criteria established for revolvers. But what is the criterion for defining a DAO pistol, and do the definitions established for revolvers work equally well today for all modern pistols?

The Smith & Wesson Model 990L is very similar to other semiauto designs classified as DAO. It follows the basic design of the SW99, which was a variation of the original Walther P99.

The P99 was created by a team headed by Horst Wesp. One of the original design criteria for the P99 was to create a traditional DA/SA pistol with a striker-fired mechanism that duplicated the trigger feel and characteristics usually found with a hammer-fired DA/SA pistol. To this end the design team was successful, but it did not achieve the overall market acceptance it had anticipated. Additionally, many shooters objected to the decocker button positioned on the top of the slide. It was not easy to reach and engage with the firing hand.

This best five-shot group was achieved with the 155-grain JHP load from Black Hills, which chronographed at 1,091 fps. The target distance was 50 feet, and all groups were shot off-hand.

The semiauto pistol market, both civilian and law enforcement, was more than accepting of the design criteria established with the Glock format, i.e. a DAO semiauto that employed a partially cocked striker design in its firing mechanism. Yet, partially cocking the striker raises some questions as to the exact definition of the mechanism used in the pistol.

Why is this important? For one thing, it allows confusion to reign supreme when contract bids are let out by various law enforcement agencies because the police administrators may know nothing about a handgun's internal operation but still have some fuzzy idea how a DAO semiauto should operate. This is particularly true when it comes to the subject of officers pointing loaded pistols at citizens during the course of a felony arrest. Is the gun likely to go off easily or with little thought or preparation? Police administrators in an ideal situation would have the issue sidearm fire only after a deliberate act and with some concentration on the part of the involved officer.

Civilians may choose a pistol for reasons similar to those seen with law enforcement agencies but with one additional provision they find important: They want a gun that is easy to shoot accurately. This sets the stage for the classic conflict of easy trigger pull for easier hand/eye manipulation vs. the heavy trigger pulls often mandated by police administrators.

Additionally, how a gun's operating mechanism is defined plays a key part in what class it is assigned in handgun competitions like IDPA. The unfortunate result of this definition confusion can be seen when competitors are forced to work from a technological disadvantage while competing against those using pistols with single-action mechanisms and corresponding lighter trigger pulls that are masquerading as DAO pistols.

Smith & Wesson's Model 990L uses the same action the Walther firm developed to compete against guns featuring partially cocked striker-firing mechanisms. Walther calls it Qwik Action, and it works as advertised. But I am not going to call it a DAO mechanism because if you go back to the original revolver for an example, none of the traditional DA revolvers featured a hammer that was partially cocked before commencement of trigger pull or firing.