A discussion on firearm laws, handgun rosters and three new California-compliant Shadow Systems pistols.
Before we even start talking about the new California-compliant Shadow Systems pistols, let’s take a step back. Why should anyone even care what’s going on in California or other ban states? Aren’t they lost causes? Shouldn’t California just drop into the Pacific Ocean and drift away toward the horizon, where it belongs?
Free-state Americans frequently admonish their brethren behind the iron curtain to simply flee to greener pastures—or to flout their draconian state laws. In fact, so many Californians have moved to other states that local newspapers dubbed it the “California Exodus.” Every year since 2010, more people have left the state than have come in from other states, citing the high cost of living, crime, politics, and taxes, among other things. Note that this is a measure of net migration from state to state; California’s overall population continues to grow due to birthrates and immigration.
That said, millions of people have many generations of families, jobs, businesses and other critical reasons to stay where they are. And if your family relies upon you to provide for them, you can’t just ignore laws and risk prosecution.
Not to mention that extremely populous states like New York and California—while considered hot beds of really bad ideas these days—are huge economic engines and integral to the nation, however aggravating they can be. California and New York represent approximately 12 and 6 percent of the total population of the United States, respectively. Together, just those two states comprise nearly 60 million people, or 17 percent of the whole country, according to census estimates for 2024. Even if the Second Amendment is a second-class citizen in those states, think of the sheer numbers of gun owners in an absolute sense.
Indeed, according to analyses of NICS data, Texas, Florida and California each accounted for over 1 million firearms sales in 2023, in total almost a fourth of overall sales nationwide and outpacing all of the other states. When it comes to total firearms by state, Statista estimates that California has the fourth highest number of weapons. Any way that you slice it, California is a significant player in the firearms space, and a key component in the ongoing fight to preserve the Second Amendment. Fortunately, patriots in these states and 2A advocacy groups are strong and persistent, and we should all support their efforts. And don’t forget that the landmark Supreme Court Bruen decision came out of New York, too.
One of the methods that states like California, Maryland and Massachusetts (plus the District of Columbia) uses to control its residents, discourage gun ownership, stifle innovation and increase costs of ownership is to limit handgun sales to only those models that are on an official roster. These states claim that this requirement filters out so-called “unsafe” handguns from being sold, by imposing design and testing requirements on new guns submitted by manufacturers for approval. The absurdity of this claim and the true motive of preventing gun sales is laid bare when you discover that merely changing the color of an already-approved pistol would render it “unsafe” until the manufacturer shoulders the substantial expense of submitting samples, paying for testing and covering various upfront and ongoing fees. In fact, California had managed to bring things to a standstill for a decade by the inane and wholly impractical requirement to microstamp unique codes on spent brass, but this was eventually stymied by litigation—only to have state legislators pass yet more laws that loom forth for the future.
In the meantime, requirements for new handgun models to have loaded chamber indicators and magazine disconnect mechanisms remain. These aren’t insurmountable challenges, so manufacturers have been steadily adding pistols to the roster, and long-suffering residents have more selections than ever to finally partake in years of advancement in handgun design. We should all celebrate millions of Californians gaining access to the latest guns, expanding support for the Second Amendment, and adding yet more people to the ranks of gun owners.
Ban The Blockade
The Glock template of perfection doesn’t include loaded chamber indicators and magazine disconnects. LCIs aren’t a big deal, but magazine disconnects are a legitimate safety hazard on a Glock-pattern pistol. Consider the procedure for disassembling a Glock. Since you must press the trigger to field strip a Glock, one of the most crucial steps for safety is to unload the gun and remove the ammunition source. But a magazine disconnect requires you to reintroduce a magazine to drop the striker. Yeah, that seems like a good idea.
We’ve reviewed a few of Shadow Systems’ pistols over the years, including the MR920, CR920, CR920X & CR920XP, XR920 & MR920L and the DR920P & DR920L. We’ve been quite impressed and were intrigued to see how they managed to make their guns California-compliant.
The loaded chamber indicator is very straightforward. There’s a cutout on the top of the barrel where a spring-loaded lever gets pushed upward when a round is present in the chamber. Many other pistols have a similar design, and the only real downside—besides aesthetics—is that the glass on your optic will get fouled. We wish more companies would incorporate an LCI on the side to avoid this issue. For example, Staccato’s new HD P4 for California has one nestled above the extractor.
Meanwhile, the magazine disconnect that Shadow Systems devised is very clever. It’s essentially a double-dingus—the ever-present safety dingus on the trigger shoe can’t move backward or allow the trigger to move unless a magazine is seated in the gun. A spring-loaded lever gets pushed up by the magazine to clear the safety dingus. Since this design piggybacks on the existing trigger safety, the trigger feels exactly the same and is unaffected by the magazine disconnect—unlike, quite famously, the Browning Hi-Power. Moreover, the mechanism is entirely within the trigger shoe, so it’s easily removed by simply replacing the trigger/trigger bar. Or you can drift a pin and excise the mechanism.
Making Guns Normal Again
Shadow Systems might be cautious about describing how to remove these components, but we have no such inhibitions.
First, the usual disclaimer—modify your firearms at your own peril. Begin by field stripping your pistol. Remove the magazine from your weapon and ensure it’s unloaded, visually and physically inspecting the chamber. Remove all ammunition from the area and grab an empty magazine. Double check the chamber, insert the empty magazine and pull the trigger. Remove the magazine, then retract the slide ever so slightly while pulling down on the take down lever. Let the slide go forward and pull it off the frame. Remove the recoil spring assembly and barrel.
The LCI is easy to remove. Remove the optic cover plate or your red dot, and take a close look at the LCI. Wiggling the lever will free it from the slide. Then, fish out the small spring. Fouling on the optic is bad enough with the LCI; we don’t even want to shoot the gun without one. So, yank it if you like, but we’ll leave ours in place.
Dealing with the magazine disconnect takes a little more effort. First, you need to remove the trigger assembly. Grab your frame, and with a 3/23-inch punch, drive out the locking block pin (the one on top). Then, push out the trigger pin; press on it from the left side while jiggling the slide stop lever to get all the holes aligned.
Due to the spring tension, try pushing the lever forward and up a bit. Once the trigger pin is out, the slide stop lever will come out too. Remove the locking block; it’s a bit tight so you can pry it out.
Push out the plastic trigger housing pin. Now you can pull the whole trigger assembly out of the frame—pull on or pry up on the ejector.
At this point, you can either modify the existing trigger shoe or simply replace part or all of the trigger assembly.
The cheapest option is the former, and by cheapest, we mean free. Examine the silver lever and the silver pin on which it pivots. From the right side, find the pin and rotate the trigger bar upward so you can reach the back of the pin. Use a small punch and thread it past the trigger bar. Push out the pin, then remove the lever and its spring. You’re done.
Reinstall everything in reverse order, except install the trigger pin last. Squeeze the slide stop lever and its spring underneath the locking block pin, then insert the trigger pin from the right side while jiggling the slide stop to get the holes to line up again. We modified the XR920 shown here in this manner; it’s easy and you can’t tell it ever had a magazine disconnect.
If you want to leave the original part unmolested, the second option is to replace either the trigger shoe/trigger bar or the entire trigger assembly. Shadow Systems sells replacement trigger shoe/trigger bars for around $20. Extract the original by pulling it forward and twisting the cruciform out of the housing. Unhook the trigger spring from the trigger bar; pay close attention to the spring’s orientation so you can reinstall it the same way with the new part.
Even better, upgrade your trigger. Note that Shadow Systems has a proprietary round firing pin, and owners have reported occasional compatibility issues with aftermarket Glock triggers. We were talking to Johnny Glocks about it and ended up inspiring them to just go ahead and develop a trigger kit specifically for these guns, based on OEM parts they sourced from Shadow Systems. So, to all you Shadow Systems owners out there, you’re welcome!
The new Johnny Glocks Umbra trigger kit is a complete replacement and will be in their Combat style, with no separate Competition kit. The flat-faced Vex Duex trigger shoe is new, featuring a longer safety dingus with improved fulcrum point and a reduced power spring. There’s also a reduced power firing pin safety spring and three firing pin springs (4, 4.5 and 5 pounds) to dial in your desired feel. All the components are OEM from Shadow Systems and worked over by Johnny to deliver the trigger pull you’ve grown to expect from him. The modified firing pin is an optional upgrade. We installed the complete kit in the MR920, swapping out the firing pin spring to achieve a 4-pound trigger pull. It’s super clean and smooth, with a crisp break, no overtravel and a short reset.
Another alternative is Timney’s Alpha Competition Series trigger, which fundamentally changes the gun’s operation from a partially cocked to a fully cocked striker—like a single-action pistol. Timney’s system nests a sear assembly in the rear trigger housing to hold the striker fully to the rear, releasing it consistently with a very light pull weight, if so desired. Meanwhile, you can retain your full-power firing pin spring for reliable ignition. The trigger was very light and consistent, with some overtravel; we set it up at 3 pounds in the DR920P for range and match use. However, we only installed the base package, so the stock firing pin safety and spring robbed some smoothness from the experience. We’ll need to rectify that later.
California Dreaming
Shadow System’s new CA models include the MR920 (G19), XR920 (G19X) and DR920P (G17 with a compensator). All three come in the Elite configuration with extensive machining on the slide and fluted barrels in either black or bronze. The MR920 and XR920 are also available in flat dark earth.
While the MR920P we reviewed before required no break-in period at all, these guns went through several boxes of ammo before shaking off occasional feeding issues. Off the bench, they turned in solid accuracy with Federal Syntech Action Pistol 150-grain, delivering the best 20-yard groups at 1.25 inches, though other loads spread out a fair amount. Muzzle velocities out of the shorter guns were about 3 to 4 percent lower than the DR920P.
We ran the pistols with stock triggers before modifying them, and as you’d expect, you can’t feel the magazine disconnect—unless of course you try to shoot one without a magazine. However, quite noticeable was the crud that begins to collect on optics due to the LCI.
Otherwise, the three guns behaved just like normal Shadow Systems pistols—great ergonomics from the frames, with the sticky texturing, double-undercut trigger guard, thumbpads, extended controls, modest magazine well and interchangeable backstraps (small, medium and large are included to fit your preference). The slide work is great for all styles of slide manipulation, and the optic mounting system is top-tier. Shadow Systems shortened the extractor plunger to make room for long, hefty optic mounting screws. The universal footprint can directly mount RMR, DPP and RMSc footprints very low in the slide, with spacers to fill in the extra space. The guns also come with metal iron sights with serrated plain black rears and tritium fronts with a fluorescent ring.
Note that the DR920P has an island-style front sight that’s affixed to the compensator so it doesn’t reciprocate with the slide, making it easier to track your sights through recoil. Not that it recoils much, as the compensator makes it shoot very flat. All three pistols handled USPSA-style stages with aplomb.
In California, only gen 3 Glocks are on the approved roster. Not surprisingly, the new Shadow Systems are flying off the shelves of the local gun stores. Yes, they’re more expensive, but they come from the factory with custom Glock features, and building your own tricked-out Glock would be quite pricey. So check them out … if you can find one.
SPECS
Shadow Systems MR920
Caliber: 9mm Luger
Barrel Length: 4 inches
Overall Length: 7.1 inches
Overall Height: 4.8 inches
Width: 1.2 inches
Weight Unloaded: 19.2 ounces
MSRP: $1,140
Shadow Systems XR920
Caliber: 9mm Luger
Barrel Length: 4 inches
Overall Length: 7.3 inches
Overall Height: 5.3 inches
Width: 1.2 inches
Weight Unloaded: 20.4 ounces
MSRP: $1,164
Shadow Systems DR920P
Caliber: 9mm Luger
Barrel Length: 4.5 inches
Overall Length: 8.4 inches
Overall Height: 5.3 inches
Width: 1.2 inches
Weight Unloaded: 21.5 ounces
MSRP: $1,293
ACCESSORIES
Atibal CRD red-dot sight $250
C&H Precision Weapons Comp optic $250
Johnny Glocks Umbra trigger kit with striker $370
Nightstick TCM-10 weaponlight $210
SIG Sauer Romeo1 Pro red dot sight $350
Streamlight TLR-7 HL-X weaponlight $295
SureFire XR1-A weaponlight $449
Timney Alpha Competition Series trigger $130
URLs
Atibal Optics: atibal-optics.com
C&H Precision Weapons: chpws.com
Federal Ammunition: federalpremium.com
Global Ordnance (Igman): globalordnance.com
Johnny Glocks: johnnyglocks.com
Nightstick: nightstick.com
SIG Sauer: sigsauer.com
Streamlight: streamlight.com
SureFire: surefire.com
Timney Triggers: timneytriggers.com
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the October 2025 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
More On Gun Rights:
