Mister Glock And I

I've owned several Glocks over the years.

I still own a Glock 21.  I've owned it since 1992, longer than I've owned any other gun.

My first was a G17, bought in 1989 when the Army had a SNAFU.  They took away our 1911's and the .45 ACP in anticipation of our issue of the M9, but something went wrong and we didn't get our new guns, but we did get the ammo.  Since we were deploying to the Czech border so the unit normally stationed there could go to Graf, we got special dispensation (most of us were too young) to buy and carry anything we could lay hands on that fired 9x19mm.  I chose Glock.

My second, and third G17's (One 1st gen, one 2nd gen) didn't last long.  One of them was given to Aunty Bat, she still has it.  The 1st gen was sold off, probably to pay a bill.

The Glock 21 was the first one I'd ever seen in the wild and I called in a favor to get it.

I say all this to establish that I don't dislike Glock.

But I've never bought into the whole "Perfection" thing.  If Glock was perfect there'd just be one model and one generation.

When the 17 first came out it was revolutionary and controversial.  It was the first plastic framed gun that got wide market penetration.  Using a striker was unusual.  Skipping the manual safety is still debated today almost thirty years later.  Actually, now that I've learned a lot more about guns I can see that the Glock wasn't very revolutionary at all, but rather it was daring to combine all of the features in one gun when they did and tout it the way they did and still do.

I was attracted to the cutting edge then, and Glock was.

Was.

Glock is pretty much like every other stodgy gunmaker now.  What do they do that no other company does?

Which brings me to the Glock 42.  A locked breech .380 pocket pistol?  Gee, like a Colt Mustang or SIG P238?  Made from plastic, oh like a Kel Tec P3AT or Ruger LCP?  Holy ten years ago!

Where they missed the boat was producing narrower single stack versions of most of their guns.  There's a demand.  A 2/3 wide Glock 19 would be a FINE carry gun.

Especially since SIG has the P938 and Ruger has the LC9 which are nearly the same size and 9x19mm.  It's almost mocked by Remington's entry into the field with their R-51, again in 9x19mm.

None of that would keep me from buying another Glock.  A lack of innovation doesn't mean they don't make good guns, but their marketing department is making fools of them.  I sympathize.  There's only so many ways you can say, "in X caliber and shorter than..."