I was going through a box of old books and came across a copy of Small Arms of the World 12th Edition printed in 1983. On page 221 is an entry for "Glock 9 x 19mm Pistol" It says
Early in 1983, the Austrian Army announced the adoption of a new handgun. This weapon was developed by the Vienna firm Glock. Following the decision of the Austrian Army to select a new pistol, the Austrian authorities also decided to limit the competition to Austrian designs. The Glock pistol, which embodies a unique combination of plastics and stamped steel, won out over the Steyr-Daimler-Puch GB Pistole. No additional data was available at the time this edition went to press
That's it. That the whole of the entry. The photo shows a Glock marked on the left side with the company logo and "82", "9mm" & "GLOCK AUSTRIA". On the right side it's marked "AA-000".
The Austrian Army accepted the Glock as the P80 in 1983. In the following year, Denmark became the first NATO country to adopt the new pistol. It was always assumed that the first Glock was named the 17 because the magazine held 17 rounds but I found some sources that claim it was made from the 17th drawing. According to the Glock timeline, a company was formed to bring the Glock to the US and began it's meteoric rise the following year. The first Glocks didn't have a metal plate for serial numbers, something the BATF soon required. Gun control advocates cried that the new plastic pistol could not be picked up by metal detectors and would be used by terrorists to hijack jetliners. Of course, the slide is steel and the frame uses steel inserts, more than enough to set of metal detectors and is easily distinguished by x-ray, but the outcry lead to legislation requiring firearms to contain a minimal amount of metal.
Since that enigmatic entry published in 1983, the Glock has made quite an impact, not just on the firearms world, but pop culture as well, starting with Bruce Willis explaining the evils of the ceramic Glock P7 in one of his Die Hard movies. I wonder if the author ever looked back on the paragraph he penned and think about the dramatic changes the "Glock 9 x 19mm Pistol" brought about since?
Early in 1983, the Austrian Army announced the adoption of a new handgun. This weapon was developed by the Vienna firm Glock. Following the decision of the Austrian Army to select a new pistol, the Austrian authorities also decided to limit the competition to Austrian designs. The Glock pistol, which embodies a unique combination of plastics and stamped steel, won out over the Steyr-Daimler-Puch GB Pistole. No additional data was available at the time this edition went to press
That's it. That the whole of the entry. The photo shows a Glock marked on the left side with the company logo and "82", "9mm" & "GLOCK AUSTRIA". On the right side it's marked "AA-000".
The Austrian Army accepted the Glock as the P80 in 1983. In the following year, Denmark became the first NATO country to adopt the new pistol. It was always assumed that the first Glock was named the 17 because the magazine held 17 rounds but I found some sources that claim it was made from the 17th drawing. According to the Glock timeline, a company was formed to bring the Glock to the US and began it's meteoric rise the following year. The first Glocks didn't have a metal plate for serial numbers, something the BATF soon required. Gun control advocates cried that the new plastic pistol could not be picked up by metal detectors and would be used by terrorists to hijack jetliners. Of course, the slide is steel and the frame uses steel inserts, more than enough to set of metal detectors and is easily distinguished by x-ray, but the outcry lead to legislation requiring firearms to contain a minimal amount of metal.
Since that enigmatic entry published in 1983, the Glock has made quite an impact, not just on the firearms world, but pop culture as well, starting with Bruce Willis explaining the evils of the ceramic Glock P7 in one of his Die Hard movies. I wonder if the author ever looked back on the paragraph he penned and think about the dramatic changes the "Glock 9 x 19mm Pistol" brought about since?
