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Glock is an Austria n weapons manufacturer (named after the founder Gaston Glock ) founded in 1963 in Deutsch-Wagram , near Vienna , Austria. OVERVIEW Mainly known for being the manufacturer of Polymer - Framed Pistol s, Glock also produces equipment such as field Knives and Entrenching Tool s. The company started as a manufacturer of curtain rods, then branched out into supplying the Austrian Army with machine gun belts, practice Hand Grenade s, plastic magazines, field knives and entrenching tools. Since then, the company has added different options and accessories such as tactical lights and a quick-draw holster to its product line. While Glock marketing materials spell the company name as if it were an Acronym ("GLOCK"), newspapers in Austria, Germany , and the United States forgo the capitalization of all letters in the interest of readability. Its first Handgun model was the Glock 17 , a 9 Mm Luger Semi-automatic Pistol with a Magazine capacity of 17 rounds (unusually large at the time), introduced in the early 1980s as a response to the Austrian army's request for a new sidearm. The 17 was so-named because it was Gaston Glock's seventeenth patent, not because it carries seventeen rounds of ammunition. Glock pistols are popular with Law Enforcement Agencies , the Military , security personnel, and private citizens. Glock was the first manufacturer to offer models chambered in the .40 S&W Cartridge ( Glock 22 and Glock 23 ; 1990), beating Smith & Wesson to the marketplace with their own cartridge. The Glock 22 is currently (as of mid-2006) the single most popular police sidearm in use in the United States. The Glock 19, a compact version of the Glock 17, remains one of the most popular 9mm firearms in the world. Glock also offers pistols chambered in 's point system. Description of the BATFE point system from Glockfaq.com "C" models are built with a "compensator" feature to reduce recoil. The company is privately held and does not release any figures concerning its revenue or internal operations. POPULARITY Glock reports sales of over 2.5 million handguns in more than 100 countries. www.totalhandguns.com, Glock Pistols Glock sidearms are very common handguns among law enforcement agencies and military organizations around the world. They are standard-issue sidearms for the Austrian , Dutch, and Norwegian Army and Northern Irish and Belgian police forces, various special units such as the German GSG 9 Counter-terrorism unit of the German Federal Police , Specialist Firearms Command of the London Metropolitan Police Service as well as the new Iraq security forces. The U.S. carry the Glock 17 in situations where weapons are issued. The demand for Glock pistols is such that despite the European Union enforcing an arms embargo against Israel , Glock 17s and Glock 19s are standard service pistols in certain Israeli military and paramilitary units ( Yamam , Shayetet 13 , Shabak , and private security firms) and remain extremely popular handguns on Israel's private citizen market. Most of the steel components in a Glock pistol are treated with a Nitriding process called " Tenifer ", which greatly increases the surface hardness and makes the weapon highly resistant to corrosion and wear. The popularity of Glock pistols is related to several factors. They are renowned for their reliability, being able to function under extreme conditions and to fire a wide range of ammunition types due to their rugged construction. The simplicity of the Glock design contributes to this reliability, as it contains a relatively small number of components (nearly half as many as the typical handgun) making field maintenance and repair easy and inexpensive. Disassembly for the Glock pistol is simple, making it easy to detail strip without expensive tools. Youtube detail strip video They are substantially lighter than typical steel or aluminum-framed handguns, making them attractive for police officers who must bear the weight of a utility belt for entire shifts, and for private citizens who carry concealed handguns for Self-defense . Another feature of Glock pistols preferred by many users is a lack of external controls such as levers, decockers, or manual safeties. This adds to the simplicity of use and removes a potential source of errors when operating the handgun under stress. A criticism of the Glock action is that the trigger must be depressed prior to disassembly or insertion into its storage case, which can result in an unintentional discharge if the operator is extremely careless. Many Glock shooters feel that the relatively low height of the bore above the grip results in less torque (muzzle "flip") when shooting and lower perceived recoil, leading to increased accuracy. Glock also claims that its " Safe Action " safety system results in smoother, more consistent trigger pull than for a conventional Double-action pistol. "PLASTIC PISTOL" MYTHS Contrary to early reports, Glock pistols do set off metal detectors and can indeed be detected by X-ray machines, due to their metal barrels and slides. The claim that they could not was first made in an article published in '' The Washington Post '' on January 13 , 1985 , entitled, "Quaddafi Buying Austrian Plastic Pistol". In this article, vocal Gun Control advocate Jack Anderson made the allegations, which were then reported without fact-checking by the Associated Press and further reported by many United States television news stations and newspapers. It has since become an Urban Legend that to this day continues to appear in news reports and movies, and has even been a topic of debate in the United States Congress . In fact, 83.7% (by weight) of the Glock pistol is normal ordnance '', neither Glock nor any other gun maker has ever produced a "porcelain", "ceramic" or "plastic" firearm which is undetectable by ordinary security screening devices. Even if a pistol completely undetectable by either X-ray machines or metal detectors were to be developed, the ammunition inside would still be detectable. In ''Die Hard 2'', the character John McClane portrayed by Bruce Willis specifically referred to a non-existent "Glock 7" with many fictitious characteristics:
Mike Papac, an armorer at Cinema Weaponry, which supplied the Glock pistols used in ''Die Hard 2'', has stated, "I remember when we did that scene, I tried to talk them out of it. There's no such thing as a gun invisible to metal detectors, and there shouldn't be, but they wouldn't budge. They had it written into the script and that was that."Fasano, John, and Jesse D'Angelo. "Lights!...Cameras!...GLOCKS!" ''GLOCK Autopistols 2005, Vol.11 No.1'', Harris Publications, 2005. 36. The Glock pistol design was not the first to incorporate a plastic frame. Heckler & Koch used polymer for their VP70 pistol frame in 1970. HK's innovation of polymer frames and Polygonal Rifling seem to have been influential in the Glock design. Still earlier, Remington introduced their polymer-framed Nylon 66 Rifle in 1959. This was so revolutionary at the time that Remington dyed the plastic brown to resemble wood and fitted a cosmetic sheet-metal cover on the receiver to make it appear to be made from steel. Further, the most extensive use of polymers in a pistol was in the Ram-Line Syn Tech Exactor pistol with a barrel made from steel-lined plastic. The popularity of Glock pistols seems to have inspired other manufacturers to begin production of similar polymer-framed products in recent years, such as the Springfield XD , Smith & Wesson M&P , and Walther P99 pistols. One such design, the Smith & Wesson Sigma , so closely resembled Glock's design that it resulted in a Patent Infringement lawsuit, with Smith & Wesson settling out of court and paying Glock an undisclosed sum. S&W and Glock settle suit SAFETY MECHANISMS Glock pistols use an internal Safety mechanism with three components, with no external thumb activated safety switch as might be found on traditional-design pistols. Glock calls this the " Safe Action " system. All three safeties are disabled one after the other when the trigger is depressed. They are:
Similar systems for internal safeties have since become standard for many major manufacturers of Semi-automatic Pistol s. However, Glock pistols, like any other firearm, can discharge and cause injury or death if the operator accidentally or negligently manipulates the trigger. The absence of a traditional safety switch means that Glock users who intend to carry the gun on their person with the chamber loaded must be cautious (as they should be for any type of firearm) of keeping their finger off of the trigger when holstering or unholstering the gun; however, the firearm will not discharge if dropped, requiring a deliberate trigger pull to discharge the firearm. In 2003, Glock announced the Internal Locking System (ILS). The ILS is a manually activated lock that is located in the back of the pistol's grip. It is cylindrical in design and, according to Glock, each key is unique. Group key hierarchic solutions are available for law enforcement agencies. When activated, the lock causes a tab to protrude from the rear of the grip. This is done to give both a visual and tactile indication as to whether the lock is engaged or not. When activated, the ILS renders the Glock unfireable as well as making it impossible to disassemble. When disengaged, the ILS adds no further safety mechanisms to the Glock pistol. The ILS is available as an option on all Glock pistols except for the G36 , but not all ILS-equipped Glock pistols are carried by distributors nor imported with the option. The most commonly available Glock pistols with the ILS are the G17 , G19 , G22 , G23 , G26 , and the G27 . EXPLOSIVE MALFUNCTIONS The explosive malfunction of a firearm, dubbed a kB! (or kaBoom!) Explanation of a kB! by firearms reporter Dean Speir, Short biography of Dean Speir. generally results from case failure in a cartridge. Explosive malfunctions in Glock pistols usually damage the firearm and can cause injury to the shooter. Controversy arose over Glock's safety standards when several instances of explosive malfunction occurred in Glock pistols sold to police departments in the United States. Article detailing alleged reasons behind the 1992 technical bulletin issued by Glock Article detailing alleged Glock pistol failure experienced by the NYPD, and the NYPD response to the issue. Upon pulling the trigger, the cartridge case would rupture and cause an explosion that would tear apart the gun and sometimes send fragments into the shooter's face. The cause of this malfunction was traced to issues with a purposely oversized (loose), and partially unsupported chamber in Glock's pistols chambered in .40 S&W, .45 ACP, and 10 mm Auto. The chamber lacks full support in the rear by the feed ramp in order to facilitate feed reliability. The lack of support in the chamber, usually combined with the use of Lead (unjacketed) bullets, reloaded ammunition, or poor-quality factory ammunition (in violation of Glock's recommendations), would cause the case to fail. The subsequent rapid expansion of gas into the chamber caused the cartridge casing to expand beyond normal specifications near the feed ramp at which time the casing would rupture, sometimes damaging the polymer frame and usually ejecting the magazine downwards out of the pistol grip. Glock, in its own defense, says that the manual that accompanies each pistol informs the shooter of the dangers of using non-factory rated ammunition, and that the firearm will function safely if the shooter uses factory-loaded, jacketed ammunition and properly cleans and cares for the firearm. Glock manual page discouraging the use of reloaded ammunition. Supporters also point out that this type of malfunction occurs in other firearms as well, kB! in a Colt Anaconda Catastrophic kB! in a Springfield M1A rifle particularly M1911 -type pistols. However, there continues to be controversy over the presence of an unsupported chamber, critics arguing that it is not necessary and is a liability for the company. It has been stated (by Glock and at least one noted barrel maker, the late Gale MacMillan) that because of the specific design of the polygonal rifling in the Glock pistol, operators should not shoot non-jacketed lead ammunition. Lead residue can quickly build up, decreasing the bore diameter and create a dangerous over-pressurization in the barrel, leading to structural failure or warping in the chamber of the barrel. Glock manual page discouraging the use of reloaded ammunition. One can notice a bulge in the fired case ejected from the pistol (even with target loads) to see the result of the unsupported chamber. TABLE OF GLOCK PISTOLS There is no "Glock 40" model, but the term is sometimes used to refer to models chambered in .40 S&W. Glock 18/18C pistols are 9 mm Luger select fire automatic/semi-auto machine pistols and not available to the general public in most countries. Glock 25 or 28 pistols are not available to the general public in the United States, as they do not meet the standards required for the importation of pistols under the Gun Control Act Of 1968 . This failure is not due to any inherent defect in the model, but due to the fact that a small pistol chambered for the .380 ACP cartridge does not meet the "sporting purposes" criteria by which imported pistols are judged. However, the Glock 25 and 28 pistols are relatively popular in nations where handguns in "military" calibers (.45 ACP, 9mm Parabellum) may not be purchased by the general public. KNIVES Glock also manufactures their own line of knives, which are popular due to their affordability and the Glock brand. They are available in olive, tan, and black. Glock currently manufactures two models of knives. There is the Field Knife 78, a classic knife, with a 6.5 inch (165 mm) blade and 11.4 inch (290 mm) overall length. The Survival Knife 81 has the same overall dimensions with an additional saw on the back of the the blade. Both knives are phosphate-treated and have a Glock-polymer sheath.Glock, Outdoor knives product page SEE ALSO REFERENCES LITERATURE
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