Though it is not generally known, I like to sometimes tape the recollections of people who are witnesses to history. Usually, I interview bona fide war veterans, but sometimes, the stories of other people pique my interest.
After buying a XD last month, all I hear from one of my "friends" at the range is how inferior it is to a Glock. Of course, he has been curiously saying something similar about my 1911s for years now, and has even cracked on my revolver. My friend, who I will call Officer Friendly, is a local law enforcement officer with about seven years on the job.
I offered to interview him on tape about why he loves Glocks. What follows is a transcript.
Boats(B): This is the oral statement of Officer Friendly concerning his Glock 22 pistol, taken Saturday February 5, 2005. Do I have your permission to record you?
Officer Friendly (OF): You sure do.
B: Good. Thank you. Let's get started then. How did you become an ardent fan of the Glock 22?
OF: Glad you asked. I was ordered to buy one before I went to the academy to gain certification to become a Deputy Sheriff.
B: That is not exactly a choice made of your free will then?
OF: No, but I am glad that the department specified it as a no brainer. Pistol, three mags, and night sights all for less than $400.00.
B: Yes, being cheap is a Glock virtue. However, isn't there something else that inspired your loyalty to this firearm?
OF: Yes, there certainly were a few other factors. At first, I didn't like the pistol quite frankly. The walls of the magazine well flexed when pressed, the grip angle was not to my liking, having fired more user friendly gripped pistols in the past. The square magazine release irritated my thumb. And the finger grooves. Don't get me strated on the finger grooves. All that and the reputation for blowing up and having to pull the trigger to disassemble it, and the lack of a manual safety. . . .
B: Not exactly a love story yet. . . .
OF: Well, none of that matters.
B: Why?
OF: Because I was told by the academy instructors that they don't. All of those perceived design shortcomings are in fact useful features. It's sort of a Bill Gates style approach.
B: What do you mean by that?
OF: Well, the instructors I had would say that complaining about a required piece of equipment was indicative of a bad mental attitude. Therefore, the Glock was to be adapted to, especially since the company has never responded to criticisms of its products before and never likely were going to.
B: So how was that attitude adjustment made?
OF: Well, first one is told that the Glock is the best pistol in the world. The instructors would say that when it was adopted they actually had a factory rep park a Surburban on it, if you can believe that! Then we watched Federal Marshals or some movie where Tommy Lee Jones, that noted Hollywood Glock expert, disparaged that druggie what-his-name over his nickle plated sissy pistol. We all got a good laugh out of it and were thereby assured that no one could make fun of our choice.
B: It was as simple as that?
OF: Well, no. But there was that time the G22 saved my life against the gang bangers who broke into one of those warehouses in the industrial section of town.
B: What happened?
OF: Well we got a call of an alarm going off at this warehouse used for car parts and what not. We don't answer those anymore by the way, in case you have an alarm system in your home. Anyway, I rolled up to the warehouse and it was apparent that whoever had broken in, was still there.
B: What did you do?
OF: I waited for back-up.
B: Then what?
OF: We decided to investigate. Deputy (Bob) took the South entrance where the door was ajar. I was to go around to the loading dock, where we heard some activity as well. I clicked off my holster's retention strap and made my way to the dock. When I rounded the corner, I was surprised to see how many suspects there were. They had an entire semi truck backed up to the dock and they were just loading away the goods in the warehouse. I still thought I had the drop on them, but at the last instant, I noticed that one of the suspects was acting as a lookout and was bringing up a long arm of some sort.
B: What did you do?
OF: As fast as I could, I drew and fired that Glock. I tried to remember "front sight and press" but I noticed then, what I usually notice when I rapidly present the Glock.
B: What's that?
OF: Well, the grip angle feature had me pointing the pistol towards the sky. As I had started firing, the short trigger reset kinda took over, and like many cops with a Glock, I soon found myself at slidelock.
B: You were in trouble then, not hitting the suspect?
OF: Not at all. I must have put at least a dozen rounds into an industrial lamp about fifteen feet above his head. The whole thing crashed down on him. However, the other gang members saw that I was temporarily out of action and took advantage by drawing down on me. I rapidly reached into my belt for my special spare mag.
B: What is special about it?
OF: Well it is filled with lead reloads of an unknown origin.
B: How was that going to help?
OF: Well I was outnumbered. I couldn't keep my pistol trained on all of them and they knew it. My backup was all the way around the building on foot and may not arrive in time to assist. I hurriedly reloaded and slingshotted the slide. I cut my thumb on the mag release in the process, which turned out to be a good thing.
B: Why?
OF: It showed those punks how tough I am. By this time, they have semi-circled me, pressing in to force my back to the wall. There were six of them, all now no more than about seven feet away. They were training a variety of handguns on me and began yelling out, "You can't get us all five-oh." Blood is streaming down onto the ground in front of me, which seemed to give them pause. "****, lookit that, ese cut hisself pretty bad and he don't care," I heard one of them mutter. What they didn't know was that I had them where I needed them.
B: How's that?
OF: Well, we Glock owners never have to clean our weapons you know. In fact it was discouraged at academy due to the amount of negligent discharges that occured from the unnecessary practice. I never cleaned mine, so I knew what was going to happen next, and they didn't,
B: What was that?
OF: I fired and blew up my Glock. The extractor hit one right in the forehead and had him whimpering for his mommy. The recoil guide rod, though it is plastic, nailed the one in front of me right in the eye. Various bits of the frame distracted everyone else and sent them scurrying. My hand hurt like the dickens, but I had already proven my mettle with my own blood during the reload.
B: What happened next?
OF: I drew my baby Glock 27 back-up.
B: Why didn't you do that before, when you needed to reload?
OF: Are you crazy? I didn't need to shoot anything high right then.
B: Okaaay. What did the gangbangers do?
OF: To a man they surrendered. All I had to say to them is "Lay down your guns or it is more of the same!" They didn't want anymore of my Glocks.
B: Well, Officer Friendly, I guess you are right. I could not have done any of that with any of the pistols I own.
END OF INTERVIEW.
After buying a XD last month, all I hear from one of my "friends" at the range is how inferior it is to a Glock. Of course, he has been curiously saying something similar about my 1911s for years now, and has even cracked on my revolver. My friend, who I will call Officer Friendly, is a local law enforcement officer with about seven years on the job.
I offered to interview him on tape about why he loves Glocks. What follows is a transcript.
Boats(B): This is the oral statement of Officer Friendly concerning his Glock 22 pistol, taken Saturday February 5, 2005. Do I have your permission to record you?
Officer Friendly (OF): You sure do.
B: Good. Thank you. Let's get started then. How did you become an ardent fan of the Glock 22?
OF: Glad you asked. I was ordered to buy one before I went to the academy to gain certification to become a Deputy Sheriff.
B: That is not exactly a choice made of your free will then?
OF: No, but I am glad that the department specified it as a no brainer. Pistol, three mags, and night sights all for less than $400.00.
B: Yes, being cheap is a Glock virtue. However, isn't there something else that inspired your loyalty to this firearm?
OF: Yes, there certainly were a few other factors. At first, I didn't like the pistol quite frankly. The walls of the magazine well flexed when pressed, the grip angle was not to my liking, having fired more user friendly gripped pistols in the past. The square magazine release irritated my thumb. And the finger grooves. Don't get me strated on the finger grooves. All that and the reputation for blowing up and having to pull the trigger to disassemble it, and the lack of a manual safety. . . .
B: Not exactly a love story yet. . . .
OF: Well, none of that matters.
B: Why?
OF: Because I was told by the academy instructors that they don't. All of those perceived design shortcomings are in fact useful features. It's sort of a Bill Gates style approach.
B: What do you mean by that?
OF: Well, the instructors I had would say that complaining about a required piece of equipment was indicative of a bad mental attitude. Therefore, the Glock was to be adapted to, especially since the company has never responded to criticisms of its products before and never likely were going to.
B: So how was that attitude adjustment made?
OF: Well, first one is told that the Glock is the best pistol in the world. The instructors would say that when it was adopted they actually had a factory rep park a Surburban on it, if you can believe that! Then we watched Federal Marshals or some movie where Tommy Lee Jones, that noted Hollywood Glock expert, disparaged that druggie what-his-name over his nickle plated sissy pistol. We all got a good laugh out of it and were thereby assured that no one could make fun of our choice.
B: It was as simple as that?
OF: Well, no. But there was that time the G22 saved my life against the gang bangers who broke into one of those warehouses in the industrial section of town.
B: What happened?
OF: Well we got a call of an alarm going off at this warehouse used for car parts and what not. We don't answer those anymore by the way, in case you have an alarm system in your home. Anyway, I rolled up to the warehouse and it was apparent that whoever had broken in, was still there.
B: What did you do?
OF: I waited for back-up.
B: Then what?
OF: We decided to investigate. Deputy (Bob) took the South entrance where the door was ajar. I was to go around to the loading dock, where we heard some activity as well. I clicked off my holster's retention strap and made my way to the dock. When I rounded the corner, I was surprised to see how many suspects there were. They had an entire semi truck backed up to the dock and they were just loading away the goods in the warehouse. I still thought I had the drop on them, but at the last instant, I noticed that one of the suspects was acting as a lookout and was bringing up a long arm of some sort.
B: What did you do?
OF: As fast as I could, I drew and fired that Glock. I tried to remember "front sight and press" but I noticed then, what I usually notice when I rapidly present the Glock.
B: What's that?
OF: Well, the grip angle feature had me pointing the pistol towards the sky. As I had started firing, the short trigger reset kinda took over, and like many cops with a Glock, I soon found myself at slidelock.
B: You were in trouble then, not hitting the suspect?
OF: Not at all. I must have put at least a dozen rounds into an industrial lamp about fifteen feet above his head. The whole thing crashed down on him. However, the other gang members saw that I was temporarily out of action and took advantage by drawing down on me. I rapidly reached into my belt for my special spare mag.
B: What is special about it?
OF: Well it is filled with lead reloads of an unknown origin.
B: How was that going to help?
OF: Well I was outnumbered. I couldn't keep my pistol trained on all of them and they knew it. My backup was all the way around the building on foot and may not arrive in time to assist. I hurriedly reloaded and slingshotted the slide. I cut my thumb on the mag release in the process, which turned out to be a good thing.
B: Why?
OF: It showed those punks how tough I am. By this time, they have semi-circled me, pressing in to force my back to the wall. There were six of them, all now no more than about seven feet away. They were training a variety of handguns on me and began yelling out, "You can't get us all five-oh." Blood is streaming down onto the ground in front of me, which seemed to give them pause. "****, lookit that, ese cut hisself pretty bad and he don't care," I heard one of them mutter. What they didn't know was that I had them where I needed them.
B: How's that?
OF: Well, we Glock owners never have to clean our weapons you know. In fact it was discouraged at academy due to the amount of negligent discharges that occured from the unnecessary practice. I never cleaned mine, so I knew what was going to happen next, and they didn't,
B: What was that?
OF: I fired and blew up my Glock. The extractor hit one right in the forehead and had him whimpering for his mommy. The recoil guide rod, though it is plastic, nailed the one in front of me right in the eye. Various bits of the frame distracted everyone else and sent them scurrying. My hand hurt like the dickens, but I had already proven my mettle with my own blood during the reload.
B: What happened next?
OF: I drew my baby Glock 27 back-up.
B: Why didn't you do that before, when you needed to reload?
OF: Are you crazy? I didn't need to shoot anything high right then.
B: Okaaay. What did the gangbangers do?
OF: To a man they surrendered. All I had to say to them is "Lay down your guns or it is more of the same!" They didn't want anymore of my Glocks.
B: Well, Officer Friendly, I guess you are right. I could not have done any of that with any of the pistols I own.
END OF INTERVIEW.
