LAPD BANS GLOCK 21 MECHANICAL FLAW - AY DETAILS ANYONE?

[Connecticut Yankee]

http://ktla.trb.com/news/ktla-glocks,0,7347501.story?coll=ktla-news-1 (excerpt begins)

LAPD Bans Officers From Using Glock 21 Pistols

By Yealee Song
KTLA News

November 23, 2005, 11:10 AM PST

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.

.... (excerpt ends)

 

[stealthmode]

i was thinking of getting a model 21.

 

[PaladinX13]

http://glocktalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=462274

I talked to a supervisor today who shed some light on the subject. He said that several officers had failure to fire incidents during live fire combat training. So an LAPD armorer had inspected several guns and found that a part inside(don't know which one) was machined a **** hair to big which is causing the firing pin to bind, hence the light strikes. This was broght to the attention to some city counsel member, who brought it to the cheif, who banned the guns untill further investigation. Glock is working hard with LAPD to slove the problem, so we'll see.

I agree with the dirty firing pin channel in most cases, but not here, it happened to my 19 after about 30k rounds. When I broke down the upper there was so much crap it was amazing the gun still worked. After cleaning I had that nice square strike. We'll see what happens with this.....

Of course, no immediate need to give up on the Glock unless yours demonstrates this issue found in only ~2% of LAPDs guns (and since these are bulk sales, there's a possibility of a bad batch or tooling issue confined to the LAPD). Meanwhile other G21 exhibit remarkable durability and reliability:

http://glocktalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=462537

 

[dairycreek]

Interesting! Recently the Portland, Oregon PD recalled all their G21's. See attached
http://www.thegunzone.com/glock/ppb.html

So much for Glock Perfection

 

[dsk]

Any make or model of firearm can have problems. The only thing that makes this so embarrassing is because Glocks have been hyped up so much by everybody. Had this been an issue with S&W or Beretta pistols hardly anybody would've noticed.

 

[gudel]

I've never had any problems with G21 not firing. I believe I've shot more out of my G21 than those cops.

 

[Marshall]

Doesn't give you a warm fuzzy regardless.

 

[sm]

</sarcasm on>

In further news today, citizens need not worry LAPD will be without sidearms.

As this story was going to press, Armorers of LAPD were choosing sidearms for LAPD from MILLIONS of handguns at the San Fancisco Police Headquaters that were turned in due to the recent Handgun Ban Law in that city recently.

"Just being of assistance to our Brothers in Blue In LA" -I.R.Blind a spokesman for San Franciso Mayors office shared.


LAPD Armorers were ushered into the back entrance to San Fancisco Police Headquaters to avoid the hordes of folks standing in line to turn in handguns.

</off>

 

[jmacphee]

"Upgrade"

Makes you wonder where or when the LAPD got the Glocks. Wasn't there an "upgrade" (Austrian for "recall"), oh about ten years ago on the 21? Would be interesting to see the serial numbers.

 

[Zach S]

I doubt the LAPD's glocks are that old. Until last year, or the year before, the Beretta 92 was the standard sidearm.

 

[JohnKSa]

This is not related to the Portland PD situation.

IIRC, in some guns, the G21 trigger bar is not pushing the firing pin safety quite far enough up to reliably disengage it. That means that the gun wouldn't fire reliably.

I don't know if this will be fixed by a modified firing pin safety or a modified trigger bar.

[edit]Correction. The problem is, apparently, that the firing pin spring is not being compressed far enough. Sorry for the incorrect information. First sentence stands, this is unrelated to the Portland situation.[/edit]

 

[Rob62]

Anyone here want to sell their G21. I'll take it.

But I don't have access to a reliable FFL so it would need to be a face to face sale somewhere near Atlanta, Georgia.

Regards,
Rob

 

[jc2]

I doubt the LAPD's glocks are that old. Until last year, or the year before, the Beretta 92 was the standard sidearm.

As far as I know, the Beretta 92 is still the standard (issue) sidearm. The Glocks are optional (officer purchase).

 

[Marshall]

There's not a reliable FFL around Atlanta?

 

[Rob62]

I actually live about 40 miles west of Atlanta. Of the few in my area I don't like doing business with any. Specially Advance Bullets in Temple.

I thought about my FFL situation and think I may have someone in Douglasville that can do a transfer.

So if you are out of state and are worried about your G21 Kb'ing. I'd be interested in purchasing your potentially defective handgun. I'll sign any liability waiver you'd like me too.

Rob

 

[Phaetos]

Interesting! Recently the Portland, Oregon PD recalled all their G21's. See attached
http://www.thegunzone.com/glock/ppb.html

So much for Glock Perfection

"Not surprisingly, the Kool Aid drinkers on GlockTalk ran amok with fear and uncertainty despite the vociferous re-assurances of one "Roland-G23" of Albany, Oregon:"

LOL!!!!!! Kool-Aid drinkers on GlockTalk!!!!! That is priceless.

 

[HD]

i would not buy any glock other than a 17...

too many unresolved issues/problems with the other models to ever feel comfortable with them again (seen 5 kbooms , 3 on factory ammo )....

 

[jc2]

Ditto.

 

[WarMachine]

Sweet Jesus...

Why is it when I am looking to buy a new gun, do all of these problems start arising with the guns I am looking at.

The CZ's and their broken roll pins and some other issues...
The XD's and their cracked locking blocks and finish...
The GLOCK's and their unsupported chambers and now this trigger issue...

I think companies need to focus less on how many guns they can crank out, and more on building quality products and addressing current issues in their existing designs.

 

[blackpanther]

Glock has had more problems than every other major mfg. combined.Ruger and CZ have the least.CZ only had one repair gun smith till recently,Glock is upgrade after upgrade and they still can't get it right.

Ed

 

[Rob62]

First let me say that I am a huge Glock fan. So color whatever I say with that fact.

I don't believe that Glock has had that many more problems with their guns than other major manufacturers. Yes there have been verifiable problems and "upgrades".

However if you consider the fact that Glock is currently one of the, if not THE leading self defense and law enforcement hand gun manufacturer then the problems are in line statistically with other manufacturers.

When Glock has 65-75% of the Law Enforcement sales market in the USA alone its no small wonder that their problems get wide attention.

I will keep using and praising Glocks performance because I honestly believe that overall they make an excellent product at a reasonable price.

I'm not saying that Glocks are infallible. Clearly some of them have or are having problems. But the same is true of Smiths, Sigs, Beretta's, etc.

My offer still stands to purchase anyones G21 that they feel no longer safe owning.


Regards,
Rob

 

[JohnKSa]

Correction to my earlier post. The problem is, apparently, that the firing pin spring is not being compressed far enough. Sorry for the incorrect information. Apparently Glock already has a fix.

This is totally unrelated to the Portland OR PD situation.

 

[jc2]

When Glock has 65-75% of the Law Enforcement sales market in the USA

Not hardly! But HK and SIGArms did win the largest LE sidearm contract in history this year.

 

[JohnKSa]

Not hardly!

What percentage do they have?

 

[Navy87Guy]

What percentage do they have?

According to the Glock Corporate web site:

"The actual sales statistics include 2.500.000 GLOCK pistols sold in over 100 countries to government and civilian customers and underlines GLOCK's dominant role of the market. In the USA, GLOCK pistols are in use in 65 % of law enforcement agencies. "

I think Glock problems get so much attention because there are so many out there. When a smaller manufacturer has a problem with 1% of their pistols, the number of effected guns is relatively small. When Glock has a problem with 1%, that's a LOT. (And in this case, the G21, they're only talking about some fractional percentage of their total sales). There are always people ready to jump on the anti-whatever bandwagon whenever a manufacturer announces an issue.

I'll reserve final judgment until all the facts are out -- right now it's just a bunch of press-initiated articles that lack any real, substantive basis. I'll be curious to see what Glock finds out about the problem when they've finished investigating.