Glock: The New Wave in Combat Handguns
Written: Dec 05 '02 (Updated Dec 05 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Well written and illustrated.
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: Gives a terrific overview of the Glock pistols that have become world renowned since 1985. Great for sportsmen, police officers, and engineers.
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| George_Chabot's Full Review: Peter Alan Kasler - Glock: The New Wave in Combat ... |
Peter Alan Kasler is the author of Glock: The New Wave in Combat Handguns, published by Paladin Press. This well-written book covers the sensational story of the Glock pistol, a new design that has gained worldwide acceptance in only fifteen years. The book contains a lot of information, just a brief overview follows.
Handgun design had a sudden flowering during the final decade of the nineteenth century through the first two decades of the twentieth century. With the invention of smokeless powder, the first practical auto loading firearms were possible. Many designs were offered and rejected by the marketplace in those few decades.
The development of the Colt/Browning short recoil breech locking system soon became the world standard among manufacturers as the most cost effective, simplest system to handle the more powerful calibers. Practical auto loading handguns were pretty much standardized by the Second World War and not much new or innovative had revealed itself over the ensuing decades.
That all changed in the 1980s with the advent of the first practical plastic-framed automatic pistol, the Austrian-made Glock. Since its US debut in 1985, the Glock has become one of the most widely accepted handguns among law enforcement, gun enthusiasts, and persons interested in personal protection.
Gaston Glock was a general hardware manufacturer in Deutsch-Wagram, a suburb of Vienna. He became aware of the Austrian government’s search for a new automatic pistol for their troops. Assembling a team of experts, Glock in 1982 created a prototype pistol using polymer for the frame, rather than the traditional steel or aluminum. The pistol, dubbed the Model 17, was submitted to the government and was deemed best of the field of eight competitors, measured against the seventeen point criteria specified by the government. The Austrians adopted the Glock 17 for their armed forces, with an initial order of 25,000 pistols. Since late 1982, quite a number of countries have adopted the Glock 17 as the pistol of their armed forces. Police departments around the world have also adopted Glock pistols as their official gun.
After carefully study, Glock established its US subsidiary in Smyrna, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. All pistols are manufactured in Austria, but Glock, Inc. in Smyrna is their US importer and distributor.
Apart from having a plastic frame, the Glock has other innovative features including “safe action” where the pistol can be safely carried with a round in the chamber and fired simply by pulling the trigger like a double action revolver. It achieves this by having three passive safeties, a trigger safety, a firing pin safety, and a drop safety, all of which operate automatically, in other words passively without requiring special attention from the operator.
Apart from its success, Glock has also been the subject of controversy. An inaccurate article by popular newspaper columnist Jack Anderson alleged that the Glock pistol was being sold to Muammar Qaddafi and that the “plastic pistol” could be passed through metal detectors, thus defeating airport security. Nothing could be further from the truth as the Glock pistol’s major components are all made from metal, apart from the polymer frame. Neither had the Glock company ever sold any pistols to Libya or anyone representing or having business ties to Libya. Nonetheless, the false allegations created a media frenzy and the bad publicity hurt Glock until the truth finally came out. Independent sources indicated that airport security had no difficulty identifying even toy pistols using airport security equipment. As of 1991, over 3,500 federal, state, and local police departments in the United States had adopted or authorized Glock pistols. Quite a brilliant success story.
The 296-page hard cover book covers much more in a highly readable and informative fashion. Many photographs make clear the operation of Glock pistols and their features and internal workings through the use of cutaway models. The information is well organized, informative, and highly readable.
Shooters, police officers, engineers, and the mechanically minded will enjoy this book. I highly recommend Glock: The New Wave in Combat Handguns.
For those who would like to read books about similar subjects, I also recommend Textbook of Automatic Pistols and The Black Rifle.
Recommended:
Yes
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