The Gun Counter

Around the Water Cooler: Galco 40th
By Rich Grassi


In the world of 1969, things were somewhat different than they are now. Changes have been many. Consider what's changed over that time, forty years. In offices, people wore jackets, ties, dresses, heels. Letters were typed - on a typewriter! The newspaper was a robust, trusted medium. Dick Nixon was President, with Spiro Agnew in second seat.

Super Bowl III saw the Jets beat the Baltimore Colts. Charles DeGaulle steps down as President of France. Lunar Lander Eagle lands on the Moon. LT William Calley is charged in the deaths of 109 Vietnamese in My Lai. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid opens.

In Chicago, Richard Gallagher opens The Original Jackass Leather Company. Now known as Galco Gunleather, Jackass made the Jackass holster. This was an X-harness arrangement terminating in a horizontally hung holster on one side and a double magazine pouch on the other - this was in the day that the service auto was the 1911. The only major service pistol in the states other than that was the P35 Browning, with some people - particularly state law enforcement in Illinois - wearing the new S&W Model 39 9mm.

In 1980, the name changed to Galco International. Shortly thereafter, a move was undertaken to Phoenix.

This was about the same time as a wildly popular new TV series started. Placed in Miami, a costar was the Jackass Shoulder System - for the Bren X first and then for the S&W Model 645. The series was Michael Mann's Miami Vice. Was the holster a star? It was often featured in segments of the program, including one showing some range exercises.

Now Galco hits its 40th year of business. Galco holsters are seen in Hollywood productions and, often, in the news. The VHS Vertical Shoulder Holster System is in use by aviators and general officers over in the sandbox.

Marking their 40th Anniversary, Galco has produced and sold out of its 40th Anniversary Rig. The rig is the shoulder system rendered in tigershark hide. Each unit is serial numbered and production was limited to 40. Several of the commemoratives have been donated to gun rights and gun industry organizations, including NRA-ILA, the NRA Foundation, the National Firearms Museum, the Shooting Industry Masters tournament and the Armed Citizen's Legal Defense Network. The donations were made to help the organizations listed with fundraising efforts or to be displayed for the historical record.

For more information, see www.galcogunleather.com.