Officer Media Group Editorial Director Frank Borelli Speaks with Gabriele de Plano, Vice President of BDT Marketing and Operations—Beretta USA Corp., about the history of the family-owned company and it's legendary status as a firearms manufacturer. The company's newest addition, the APX A1 encompasses the reliability and quality the APX family has become known for within the shooting communities, now with a shorter and lighter trigger pull, red-dot optic ready slide, and improved modularity.
An area of improvement de Plano says will please law enforcement officers is the ergonomics of the grip. "We recontoured the grip frame by making it a straight grip—we used to have a finger groove in it that we found did not meet everyone's hand size. So, it's really universal for anyone's hands." Another big improvement is upgrades to the trigger. "The trigger was a big one because we received some suggestions for improvement. Our safety, when you push the trigger it's flush so that it doesn't bother your trigger finger at all," he says. We contoured it a little bit more. It's a very comfortable trigger, a very short reset; it's very crisp."
According to de Plano, APX A1 also is configured for optics including night sights and red dot optics. "As the (APX) family evolves, we're going to add more to it," he says. "Another thing we did is standardize the dovetail cut to the M9/92X pistol series, so other after market sights with that dovetail configuration fit. So there are plenty of different sight configurations out there."
He also talked about Beretta's American Defender program. "It's our way of thanking first responders and military personnel," he says. "Through our L.E. dealer network, that has L.E. pricing, we offer those service members, those officers, and those first responders an opportunity to visit our L.E. dealers, purchase select products at a discounted price, and either be able to buy the APX or the 1301 or other products from Beretta at a special price."
To find out more about the American Defender program, Click Here, and visit Beretta.com to get more information on any of their other products.
