The Cult of Glock

Is anyone convinced?

David DeGerolamo

      
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Stones
Stones
7 years ago

Meh, use what fits you. Your hand, your budget, your carry style. Then practice with it, drawing, reholstering, and shooting it.

Tom Angle
7 years ago

Does anyone know his MOS, what unit he was in and what times did he served?

Mark
Mark
7 years ago

I have a Police Officer Nephew that has a Glock horror story…the discharge (in the holster while his hand was not near the gun…walking with a partner and with eyewitnesses) was investigated by the State Police and he was found completely and totally not at fault for the discharge.

Glock is litigating unexplained discharges all over the country. With no eyewitness your screwed. Even with eyewitnesses (as in my Nephews case) to a Glock going off for no conceivable reason they will blame the armorer, the holster, and what ever else they can pull in…their ARMY of LAWYERS will delay…delay…delay….and run a victim around in endless deep pocket circles or buy your silence with a settlement and the truth will never come out.

After learning the details of my Nephew’s incident and investigating other Glock incidents (one in Raleigh) on my own to see if there was a problem…I wouldn’t own a Glock if it was free.

55six
55six
7 years ago

It is mechanically impossible for a Glock handgun to discharge without a willful pull of the trigger or otherwise having the trigger safety then the trigger pressed or pulled until it discharges. A Glock’s firing pin is not in position to fire until the trigger is fully pulled, being “cocked” by the action of pulling the trigger. It simply cannot fire by “accident”.

Also, Wild Bill needs to stay on his meds.
-55six

Tom Angle
7 years ago
Reply to  55six

Your silly. Why would you expect him to actually understand the mechanic of the firearm. It has been my experience that most LEO agents no nothing about the firearm or the ammo they carry.

Eric
Eric
7 years ago

I left the Cult of JMB for Glock years ago because I saw them as dangerous and too damn heavy, it seemed like every time I checked my wonderful “positive thumb safety” was somehow disengaged. As 55six pointed out it is not possible for a Glock to “go off” without pulling the trigger. There is a firing pin or striker if prefer block that must be depressed by the trigger bar. that can only be accomplished by pulling the trigger. Now if you have worn parts IE firing pin safety or firing pin maybe it could happen, but then it would be negligence on your part or the armorers for not doing proper maintenance. Wild Bill comes across as a hack to me and I’ve never taken him seriously. Lastly as others have said before me and will say after go with whatever gun works for you and fits in your budget. Be it a High Point or a Wilson Combat. Practice with it, learn it and take care of it.

Eric.

Mark
Mark
7 years ago

The Glock handgun has a documented history of going off unexpectedly wounding the person carrying it and sometimes even killing innocent bystanders. So why do private owners and US law enforcement love it so?

Handguns made by Glock Inc. have a nasty reputation for accidental firing and “over-firing.” The gun has figured in many of the recent mass shootings in the US, giving the liberal media its much sought after anti-gun information and the company itself, along with 14 other gun manufacturers, is being sued by several US cities that hope to recoup losses from gun violence. Yet for such a troubled gun, it remains enormously popular among civilians and peace officers. The Glock 9mm and .40- and .45-caliber pistols are the guns of choice among America’s law enforcement agencies; 65 percent of US law enforcement officers have Glocks in their holsters. That is by design: The company’s CEO told reporter for the US News and World Report in 1995 that targeting US police first was part of an orchestrated plan to gradually move into the civilian market. The Violence Policy Center has called Glock’s marketing to US police “hyperagressive” and “excessive,” especially because of the dubious trade-in deals the company offers: Cops can often trade in their old sidearms and any guns they’ve seized from criminals in exchange for new Glocks. Glock, in turn, sells the trade-ins on the civilian market.

In 1988, the FBI predicted that the Glock’s sensitive trigger and lack of external safeties would “inevitably … lead to an unintentional shot at the worst moment.” Indeed, 11 years later, the Washington DC Police Department alone had had 120 accidental firings, 19 officers had wounded themselves or others with Glocks, and the district had paid $1.4 million in damages from resulting lawsuits related to Glock accidents. In one case, an officer shot and killed an unarmed teen at a DC roadblock. Another officer accidentally shot and killed an unarmed motorist during a routine traffic stop. One DC cop accidentally shot his own roommate.

The Louisville, Ky. Police Department adopted the Glock just last year. Within six months, five Louisville police guns fired accidentally. One bullet hit a truck. Another officer’s gun fired while he was leaning over to tie his shoelaces inside the police station and the even was clearly captured on a surveillance camera and used by the officer in court. After the third misfire, Louisville police rushed to defend their new Glocks, declaring the gun not guilty in the third incident — the officer’s gun went off accidentally as he was attacked by a man who had fled a routine traffic stop. Rather than bagging the gun, the department implemented new training in gun safety. Several more accidents followed almost immediately, the fifth an errant bullet accidentally wounding an officer’s son.

In New York City, where 70 percent of the police force uses Glocks, the problem is not so much accidental shootings (although eight officers have accidentally wounded themselves), but overkill. According to a study by the FBI, New York City police officers armed with Glocks fired an average of 4.8 rounds in gunfights while those with revolvers fired 2.4 in 1994. Even after 100 bullets were fired in stopping a robbery in the Bronx in 1995, New York City police officials briefly investigated “overfiring” of the Glock but decided to keep it anyway.

Even the FBI, despite its earlier dark forecasts on the Glock, adopted it as a standard-issue pistol in 1998. The Media confronted the agency about the 1988 report panning the Glock. In response, FBI Firearms Training Unit Chief Wade Jackson, Jr. (from whose division the 1988 report originated) wrote in impeccable bureaucratese: “What may have been mentioned at one point in time, given a lapse of more than 10 years, may no longer be accurate in statements or conclusions drawn which are not supported by empirical facts as exist presently.”
He continued, “The Glock pistol, in the FBI’s experience, has demonstrated safe and effective performance when accompanied by proper training, correct usage, care, and maintenance habits.”

While police departments hasten to defend the gun after every misspent bullet, Josh Horowitz of the Firearms Litigation Clearinghouse says the Glock has been the subject of more lawsuits for accidental deaths than any other gun he’s tracked in the past 10 years.

Horowitz cites the absence of an external safety, the gun’s “light and short trigger pull” and the fact that it will fire even with the magazine removed as the combination that makes the Glock an unnecessarily hazardous gun.

“The Glock is always on,” says Horowitz, referring to the absence of an external safety. “It increases the already great risk that someone is going to be injured when there’s a gun around.”

So why the civilian and police loyalty to such a seemingly flawed, unpredictable, and embattled sidearm?

The results have been unfortunate, according to police reports and internal department records examined by The Washington Post.

In the 10 years since D.C. police adopted the Glock 9mm to combat the growing firepower of drug dealers, there have been more than 120 accidental discharges of the handgun. Police officers have killed at least one citizen they didn’t intend to kill and have wounded at least nine citizens they didn’t intend to wound. Nineteen officers have shot themselves or other officers accidentally. At least eight victims or surviving relatives have sued the District alleging injuries from accidental discharges.

In an extraordinary sequence over the last six months, the District has settled three lawsuits for more than $1.4 million. The District admitted no wrongdoing in the suits, but the cases highlight the chronic neglect of Glock training by the D.C. police.

Last month, the District paid $250,000 to settle a case brought by the family of an unarmed teenager shot and killed at a traffic roadblock in 1996. The family’s attorney argued that the officer’s gun had discharged accidentally.

In August, the District paid $375,000 to settle another case in which a D.C. officer accidentally shot and killed an unarmed driver at a traffic stop in 1994.

In June, the District paid almost $800,000 to settle a case from 1994, when a D.C. officer accidentally shot his roommate.

The string of accidental shootings by D.C. officers came amid 10 years of warnings from firearm experts about the Glock’s light trigger and propensity to fire an unintentional shot when handled incorrectly. Such a sensitive gun was designed for highly trained users.

D.C. police officials repeatedly studied the phenomenon of accidental discharges, invariably concluding that there was no fundamental problem with the Glock itself — as long as users were properly and continuously trained. Officials chose not to modify the Glock trigger, as New York City police did in 1990, to require a more forceful tug to fire the gun.

But in 1994, D.C. police recorded more accidental discharges than the Chicago and Los Angeles forces combined, two far bigger departments, according to discharge records from the departments. Last year, the accident rate for D.C. police was 50 percent greater than that of Chicago and Los Angeles police, which issue firearms other than Glocks.

Former D.C. police chief Larry D. Soulsby told The Post recently that he had planned to have the department switch from the Glock to another pistol before his retirement last November. Safety, Soulsby said, was “absolutely” a major factor in his thinking! In the past, the police union had pressed for a change of service weapon, Soulsby and former union officials said.

The Glock semiautomatic is, by all accounts, a 21st-century gun. Made of steel and plastic, the Glock 17 model carried by D.C. police is lightweight but powerful, able to deliver 18 bullets in nine seconds. It is sturdy, requires little maintenance and is very easy to shoot.

Unlike many semiautomatics, the Glock has no external manual safety. The pistol carried by D.C. police uses a five- to six-pound trigger pull — half the pull of most other semiautomatics for their first shot. The features allow a shooter to fire quickly in dire circumstances when getting off the first shot is critical. Glock’s pride in its design and precision is reflected in the company’s motto: “Glock Perfection.”

The Glock’s unique features made the gun attractive to D.C. police officials when slayings in the District soared in the late 1980s. The D.C. department liked the lack of an external manual safety, calling that “a paramount consideration” in selecting the Glock, according to the department’s Firearms Training Manual. Officers accustomed to firing revolvers that lacked an external safety — which included the entire D.C. force — could more easily switch to the Glock than to a pistol that required them to learn how to disengage the safety before shooting, the department reasoned.

Department officials knew that diligent training would be crucial to ensure a safe transition from revolvers to semiautomatics.

In February 1988, the departmental committee studying the handgun issue noted that the revolver was safer “for the inexperienced shooter” and that “the accidental discharge potential is greater for the Glock semiautomatic.” But the committee predicted that “proper, continuous training and clearly defined departmental policy” for the semiautomatic “should negate this factor.”

In December 1988, the department made a surprise announcement that it was switching to the Glock. Police officials were so taken with the gun’s merits that they got the District to approve an emergency procurement without competing bids. “Failure to procure these weapons on an emergency basis could result in needless injury to police officers and the public,” city procurement official noted of the department’s request.The District paid just over $1 million for 4,300 Glocks.

The decision was immediately controversial. Dissenting voices were beginning to be heard about “Glock Perfection.” Perhaps the most significant criticism came from the FBI. The FBI Academy’s firearms training unit tested various semiautomatic handguns and in a 1988 report gave the Glock extremely low marks for safety. The report cited the weapon’s “high potential for unintentional shots.”

And most recently a similar report by the BATF said the Glock failed many safety tests during its evaluation of the handgun one being its unwanted ability to go off after being thrown; a test they called the Frisbee test.

Unintentional shots would turn out to be a disquieting byproduct of Glock’s unique design, according to many experts and to lawsuits filed against Glock in the last decade. Even though the Glock does not have an external manual safety, it heralds the existence of three “internal safeties” intended to prevent the gun from discharging if dropped or jostled.

A unique feature of the Glock is that a shooter disengages all three safeties at once by pulling the trigger.

SO IS THIS REALLY A SAFETY?

Almost immediately after D.C. police adopted the Glock, unintentional discharges increased sharply.

The first accident occurred in February 1989 — less than a month before the guns reached officers on the street. Officer Adam K. Schutz was helping to test and clean the first shipment of guns when he shot himself in the fingers.

Nine months later, the 2-year-old daughter of a D.C. police officer died after accidentally shooting herself in the head with her father’s pistol in their Northwest Washington house.

By October 1989, the department had experienced 13 unintentional discharges, double the rate of 1988, the last year with revolvers, according to an internal police memo. Then Assistant Chief Max Krupo noted in the memo to the chief that such problems were to be expected in departments switching to semiautomatics. Krupo suggested that increasing the five-pound trigger pressure to eight pounds “would be satisfactory.” But after studying the issue, Krupo decided that a five-pound pull was just as safe as an eight-pound one.

In the years after the department’s 1990 report on Glock accidents, unintentional shootings continued to mount.

In October 1990, Officer Edward Wise fired accidentally and grazed a man’s head during an undercover drug operation at a Southeast Washington housing complex, according to police and court documents. Wise said he had been struggling with the man, Barry Braxton, who was unarmed. Braxton sued and collected a $55,000 settlement from the District.

In May 1991, an officer accidentally shot Kenneth McSwain, 18, in the back when the officer slipped while serving a search warrant in Northeast Washington, court and police documents show. McSwain, who was unarmed and was not charged with any crime, collected a $42,000 settlement.

In August 1991, an officer accidentally shot Stephen Wills in the chest during a drug bust in Southeast Washington, according to court and police documents. Wills, who was unarmed and was not charged with any crime, collected a $40,000 settlement.

Four officers were wounded with their own guns in 1992. Over and over, officers fired unintentional rounds in the locker rooms at their district stations, or at home while cleaning or unloading their guns, according to police reports.

Officers are told during training to avoid such accidents by being attentive to the Glock’s unique, simplified design.

In March 1993, Officer Lakisha Poge fired a round through her bed while unloading a Glock in her apartment, a police report states. The bullet went through the floor and hit Glowdean Catching in the apartment below. Catching, who was wounded in both legs has a suit pending against the District. Poge, who has left the department, could not be reached for comment.

“I submitted reports through channels and said, ‘You have problems with this gun,’ ” former homicide branch chief William O. Ritchie, who chaired the department’s Use of Service Weapon Review Board in 1993, said in an interview. “I talked to the union and said, ‘There is a hazard here.’ ”

In January 1994, homicide detective Jeffrey Mayberry shot Officer James Dukes in the stomach at police headquarters. “I hear a loud bang and Dukes is slowly falling to the floor,” Detective Joseph Fox, Mayberry’s partner, said in a deposition. “Jeff jumps up and says, ‘Dukes, I didn’t mean to do it, I didn’t mean to do it.’ ”

Four days after Dukes was shot, Officer Juan Martinez Jr. accidentally shot his roommate, Frederick Broomfield, in the groin while awaiting dinner in their apartment, according to police and court records.

Martinez was unloading his Glock in his bedroom when Broomfield came in and asked Martinez how he wanted his chicken cooked. The gun abruptly went off.

Broomfield, who nearly bled to death after the bullet pierced an artery in his groin, sued the District and Glock Inc. His attorneys compiled a voluminous case in D.C. Superior Court, marshaling gun experts who gave statements about the alleged dangers of the Glock and the deficiencies of the District’s training.

In June, the District settled the case by paying Broomfield $797,500. Glock also settled, but a lawyer for Glock declined to disclose the amount. In court papers, Glock denied that its gun was dangerous or defective.

By 1997, the safety issue had turned some members of the D.C. police union against the Glock, according to Robertson, the former union official. Several officials wanted to switch to the Sig Sauer, a more expensive gun with a heavier trigger pull.

Currently many police departments across the US are switching from the Glock too much safer handguns such as the Sig Sauer and the Heckler and Koch citing the rise in accidental discharges. But the Glocks have several other problems that could be classified as safety issues.

The gun exhibits a tendency to jam if not properly held; a phenomenon Glock calls “Limp Wristing”. This is somewhat of a common occurrence with the Glock handgun but one, which is rarely if ever seen with other handguns.

Most jams occur when a short round is encountered or some internal component fails, but the Glock exhibits this tendency at random and it will vary from shooter to shooter a very uncomfortable dilemma to have if you use your firearm for self-defense or duty.

Another problem with the Glock had to do with its failing chambers when used with high pressure ammunition, ammo carried by most police while on duty and favored by civilians for self defense. This problem has occurred mainly in a .40 caliber version of the Glock, but nonetheless must still be considered in the equation as we evaluate the safety of this handgun.

All in all the Glock handgun has the most documented cases of accidental discharge and safety related failures of any handgun currently in law enforcement use to date. This, Glock admits does not include those accidental discharges by private owners that go unreported and failures of key components. Some weapons designers summation of the handgun is that it is very dangerous for all shooters, from the highly trained police officer in a tense situation to the ill trained home owner awaken at 3:00AM by the sound of an intruder.

In short the deficiency of a real safety, second-rate quality and the inherent design flaws of the gun make this a poor choice for anyone looking to purchase a handgun.

I will report further on my crusade to discredit the myth of the “Glock Perfection” as I gather and sift through the reams of text available about the defects of this gun.

TFW

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-owens-glock-accidents-20150508-story.html

Don
Don
7 years ago

Well my friend answer this ? If “Glock’s” are so damn dangerous and unreliable, why do most law enforcement agencies and military organizations worldwide, carry Glocks in one caliber or another ?
Why can’t any other firearm on the market stand up to the torture testing given “Glock’s” worldwide like being frozen, fired underwater, full of dirt and water, function after firing as many as 10,000 rounds without feeding malfunctions or firing malfunctions ?
Stupid people do stupid things to cause these so called “Accidential” discharges which are nothing but holster issues like using “Improper” leather holsters that fold into the triggers and discharge the weapon and other stupid mishaps ! I have carried all types of handguns and long guns since I was 19 yrs old with 6 yrs in the Army, two overseas tours ad then followed up by 20 years in Law Enforcement !
I have carried a Glock since 1998 every day CCW, and no mishaps because of using “Glock” holsters and training regularly !***I bet my life on a “Glock” every day even though I also own a Ruger, A S&W, and have owned Colt 1911’s, Kahr 9mm ( A real piece of crap), Walther PPK/S,
Taurus, Charter Arms, and carried everything from A-Z during my life time.
Before talking S*** about a firearm, handle it and fire it extensively and then you have some ground to stand on instead of “Maybe’s” or “Should Be’s”, etc.***Last but not least, do some damn research and have some comparison and experience basics before engaging your brain and
mouth !

Mark
Mark
7 years ago
Reply to  Don

Don,

You had a good counter post/debate and then you ended it with a rude, unnecessary insult.

I don’t suffer self righteous indignant blather mouths…flap your lips at somebody else.

55six
55six
7 years ago

Mark, posting an ill-informed and biased article does not win you any points here. Like a revolver, a Glock handgun cannot fire unless the trigger is pulled. The striker is moved reward by the trigger until it is released to strike the cartridge (The striker spring is partially compressed by the action of the slide).

Many officers have shot themselves by not following the golden rule of firearms, keep your finger off the trigger until ready to discharge the weapon.

Could a holster like a $10 nylon cheapie cause an issue? Absolutely. Could shoving it in a waistband cause a Glock to fire? Absolutely. Could it simply “go off” all by itself? No. The trigger safety and then the trigger HAVE TO BE MOVED REARWARD FOR THE WEAPON TO FIRE.

BS like this serves no purpose and gives fuel to liberal idiots to use against firearms and owners.

-55six

Mark
Mark
7 years ago

55six,

I could care less about winning points. You will not meet a more pro 2nd amendment American and I go nowhere without a handgun if possible. Here is the Paul Harvey rest of the Story and what’s behind my anti Glock passion:

I have a Nephew (who I love like a son and helped raise) who is a former Marine, grunt Iraqi veteran (following my Nam example) Police officer-Swat Team member, who had a Glock go off in his holster -- while walking with another officer, inside a building with two eyewitnesses testifying his hand was nowhere near the gun when it went off. The State Police cleared him (with off the record comments supporting him even more then the report – his career would have been over if he didn’t have those eye witnesses) of having anything to with the discharge.

You have to know my Nephew – if there ever was a squared away Marine/Cop/badass he is one. I got involved in researching what in the hell happened and why and what is going on with Glocks?
Yea, its controversial, yea there are Glock lovers and haters – I was neutral until it hit home.
My nephew fought back from a debilitating injury that would have ended the career of 90% of other men…he also refused to ride the gravy train medical pension (after the investigation and he was cleared and it was offered) as being a Cop was his boyhood dream and he loved it! And does it to this day (this happened many years ago). After watching an ARMY of Glock pinstriped suit -- egg sucking bastard lawyers COME AFTER HIM (to no effect) I got pissed. Glock is a high powered machine and you challenge them get ready for the reptile lawyers.

I believe my Nephew was carrying one of these 2%.

LAPD Bans Officers From Using Glock 21 Pistols-(defect glock owners/lovers heads up)
| November 23, 2005 | Yealee Song

Posted on Saturday, November 26, 2005 7:51:07 PM by Flavius
The Los Angeles Police Department has instructed its officers to stop using Glock 21 pistols because of concerns that the weapons could misfire.
According to Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell, the LAPD’s Armory discovered that there may be a mechanical flaw with about two percent of the guns.
Officials with Austria-based Glock Inc. are expected to investigate the matter with the LAPD next week, he said.

The moratorium is being taken as a safety precaution for officers.
The lighter-weight, easier-to-shoot Glocks were approved in August 2003.
About 70 percent of law enforcement agencies across the country use Glocks, a futuristic-looking plastic and metal gun that costs about $500.
Glocks boast a larger magazine capacity, less recoil and a more ergonomic design, making it easier for users to handle compared to the standard-issue Beretta 9 mm.
Copyright © 2005, KTLA

REQUEST FOR REGIONAL BROADCAST

ATTENTION DEPARTMENTS WITH GLOCK HANDGUNS

THE HADDON HEIGHTS NEW JERSEY POLICE DEPARTMENT TOOK DELIVERY OF TWENTY (20)GLOCK MODEL #22, 40 CALIBER HANDGUNS, SERIAL #S KNX803 THRU KNX823 AND FOUR (4) GLOCK MODEL #27, 40 CALIBER HANDGUNS SERIAL #S KNA564 THRU KNA567 IN DECEMBER 2006. SINCE THEN THIS DEPARTMENT HAS EXPERIENCED NUMEROUS FAILURE TO EJECT, AND STOVEPIPE ISSUES WITH MOST OF THESE WEAPONS.

THIS DEPARTMENT USES 180 GRAIN FEDERAL BALL AMMO FOR PRACTICE AND QUALIFICATION AND 180 GRAIN FEDERAL HYDRA-SHOK FOR DUTY USE. MANY OTHER AMMO TYPES AND MANUFACTURERS WERE TESTED, EACH HAVING FAILURES TO EJECT AND STOVEPIPES. THE FACTORY REPRESENTATIVE HAS CHANGED SEVERAL INTERNAL PARTS INCLUDING EJECTORS AND EXTRACTORS WITHOUT SOLVING THE PROBLEMS AND RECOMMENDED ALL THE NEW WEAPONS BE TAKEN OUT OF SERVICE. AT THIS TIME GLOCK HAS BEEN UNABLE TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM.

ANY DEPARTMENT HAVING SIMILAR ISSUES, PLEASE CONTACT CHIEF RONALD SHUTE AT 856-547-0614 EXT #11 OR BY E-MAIL AT RSHUTE@HADDONHEIGHTSBORO.ORG

CAMDEN CO POLICE COMM NJ004O63N MG 1148ET
Chief Shute, contacted for comment on his experiences in this matter, responded:

From: Chief Ronald S. Shute
Date: 1 March 2007

Dean,
I have had many responses to my teletype; the most disturbing came from the Indiana State Police. I learned that they took delivery of 1,375 Glock Model 22s in August of 2005 and immediately started to have stovepipes and failure to eject issues.
ISP did extensive testing and concluded that there was a problem with the weapon. Glock representatives were unable to resolve the problem and as a result all the Model 22s were returned to Glock1.
After my problems became apparent, our Glock representative implied that the issues were possibly due to the ammunition that we were using. I personally witnessed the rep shoot four other brands of ammo, all with numerous stovepipes and failure to ejects, concluding that it was not an ammunition created problem.
If I can be of any further help, please do not hesitate to contact my office.
Sincerely,
Chief Ronald S. Shute
Haddon Heights Police

Subsequent to that E-mail, a lengthy telephone call with Chief Shute ensued, and further information developed:
1. The Haddon Heights Police Department, consisting of approximately 16 sworn officers, has been carrying semi-automtic pistols since the Sturm Ruger Models P85 were first available in the mid-to-late ’80s.

2. For the past 11 years, their duty weapon has been the 9 X 19mm Ruger P89, and in 2006, faced with upgrading their aging handguns and not wishing to be “the last department in our area of New Jersey to be carry 9mms,” a number of .40 S&W pistols were obtained for evaluation from Ruger, Glock, Smith & Wesson, Beretta, etc. The evaluation team consisted of Chief Shute, two of his officers who were “shooters,” and a member of a county Tactical Unit which deployed in Haddon Heights’ jurisdiction when needed.

3. At the end of extensive shooting sessions and a “round-table” discussion of the relative merits of each model pistol, the Chief’s evaluation team to a one listed the Glock Model 22 as their top choice, and the Chief agreed:
I’m a “team player” and was willing to accept the consensus despite my traditional reliance on steel when it comes to a machine… which is what a firearm is.
The order was then placed with the area’s law enforcement distributorship for the twenty Models 22 and four Models 27.

4. The department almost immediately began having ejection problems and stovepipes. A call to Glock elicited the suggestion to “take the lights off the guns.” Even with the illumination modules removed from the receiver rails, the same problems continued.

5. A follow-up call to Glock was met with the suggestion that it was… why are we not surprised?… it was either ammo-related or caused by the shooter(s) “limp-wristing.” The Chief requested that the company’s area representative make a personal visit to the department for a demonstration.

6. Despite the use of ammunition from four different manufacturers, the problems continued. The representative then twice undertook an internal parts change, including the ejector. Confident that the issues had been addressed, the representative got through one magazine without untoward event, but on the fifth round of the next magazine, there was another stoppage.
The look on the Glock guy’s face was, as they say in the MasterCard ads, “Priceless!”
At that point the factory representative acknowledged that he was stumped, and on 6 February 2007, the Model 22 was returned to Smyrna for remedial work.

7. After what he deemed a suitable period of time, on Thursday, 22 February, Chief Shute contacted Glock Inc. for a report of what they had discovered.
They didn’t know a thing, and had nothing to tell us.
With that, Haddon Heights PD removed all their issued Glocks from service, re-issued their 11-year-old Ruger Models P89, and the Chief directed that the teletype be issued.

In the ‘phone interview, Chief Shute was unequivocal in his displeasure, enhanced by the number of responses from other agencies who contacted him following the dissemination of the teletype, with the performance of both Glock Inc. and their Models 22 and 27.

I am not putting my men out on the street with weapons whose reliability is in any way questionable. And the company’s response to this is completely unacceptable. They know there’s a problem here, they haven’t informed anyone about it, and there’s officers out there at risk! The guns go back to the distributor and we get our money back!

There it rests for now… three Glock Inc. officials have been contacted for comment, and have yet to respond.

Now look, any of you who disagree with me…I have no problem with that…but keep it civil…I do not accept or suffer disrespectful comments – Period. This is the best blog on the internet, keep it that way among the patriots.

Ral
Ral
6 years ago
Reply to  Mark

Mark you are up against the wall when talking to the club. If they even bother to read the data posted it is not for comprehension rather to make an argument. Apparently many have the idea that something is either completely safe or completely unsafe. In the real world there is a lot of ground in between those two extremes. The concept that some designs are more likely to contribute to an accident than others is incomprehensible if they have no personal experience with the cost of said mishaps and are invested in a pet design.
Keep going do not get discouraged. Remember for every person that actually responds on line scores of folks read, research the issues brought up and are able to make more informed decisions away from the noise.

Scott C.
Scott C.
7 years ago

I usually enjoy what Bill has to say, but not this time. I have used several different types of pistols on duty and off. I carry a 19 and have personally never had an issue. There’s been thousands of rounds through mine, without any incident. I do recall what a Apache knife fighting instructor said once when asked what knife style he preferred best: “the one that kills my enemy”. And to answer Mr. DeGerolamo, no I’m not.