NPR story on book "How Glock Became America's WOC"

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Extremely interesting podcast, thank you very much for posting it.

I highly recommend to listen to it if you can stomach the veiled anti gun or at least not gun friendly tone that once in a while emerge from the interviewer....except in the end where an almost gun positive message can be heard....

The story served (to me) to put together the bit and pieces of info and stories I heard about Glock.

Highlights:

- The gun is reliable and accurate, it is light and economical....a simple weapon but not so special.

- Extremely crafty marketing skills....good old "greasing the wheel" process....treating your potential big account customers with a lot of goodies....seems that Glock was/is particularly "popular" and active in this area....

- Co-opting Hollywood...big advertisement.....often for free.

- Extremely smart to set the price not low for the gullible public thus creating the "myth" (helped by Hollywood and some co-opted gun writers) not "cheapening the gun" but at the same time offer outrageous discounts to police departments and LE agencies (to increase market penetration and name recognition) close to what the price should be, including a good margin of profits.

- Keep the LE bean counters asking for more offering extremely convenient trade-in programs.

- Glock retail for too much...margin profits are extremely high for the company.

- Several cases of "Glock legs" including LE personnel.

The research piece somewhat reinforced my decision of not getting one (or any striker fired pistol).

One aspect of the reasearch that I think is incorrect is that the author claims that one of the main appeal of the Glock to Police departments was the high capacity magazine compared to the 6 shooters in service then....well I believe that Beretta and CZ were significantly earlier than Glock in offering highly reliable semi-auto with high capacity....

A positive note mentioned int he podcast (beside Glock).....gun ownership is on the rise in America and legislation is getting less restrictive.....and at the same time crime rate is dropping...something the anti-gun crowd have to wrap their heads around (this incredibly aknowledged by NPR!!!)
 
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Interesting piece.

I have stated before and will again; Glocks are great guns. They really are. However, the real Glock power is in it's marketing. I am reminded of this anytime the uninformed (or a fanboy) states that it is the "best" or "most used" or "most common" 9mm in the world. This is Glock marketing.

But closing, yes.....Glock is a great gun. Not only that, but it is now a part of our culture, even among non-gun people.
Not many guns can say that.
 
I find this rather surprising to have come off of NPR of all places. They love reporting on wars, but bash the living daylights out of us 'gun-totin', law abiding citizens' quite frequently.

Now we just need them to get a 10mm story going for how awesome the cartridge is. More production=price drop :D

Yeah, I'm dreaming. Sue me
(That's sarcasm. I'm broke)
 
I listened to the interview last week. I was quite impressed that NPR would broadcast such a thing.

The last piece on guns from NPR I listened to was from "This American Life" with Ira Glass. He and his staff often interview people on the topic at hand for the week. I honestly couldn't tell you if they covered a positive interview about guns. The first 2 or 3 were from ex-gun owners and how much guns changed their lives for the worse. I shut it off because I couldn't bear another second of it. (This was about 8+ years ago).
 
Maybe NPR has stuck the wetted finger out in the political winds and want to keep their funding after all the commies are thrown out in a few months?
 
I heard this story on "Fresh Air" when it aired and given how uber-liberal Terry Gross is, I couldn't believe how fair the interview was. Her tongue must have resembled bubble gum from all the biting...
 
FALnovice: "I am reminded of this anytime the uninformed (or a fanboy) states that it is the "best" or "most used" or "most common" 9mm in the world.

From the published statistics I have seen from non-GLOCK sources, GLOCK is THE most common gun in police holsters in the US, and the GLOCK 22 the most common version. At my local gun shop GLOCKS outsell others 2 to 1. Where are you getting your data, and what gun are YOU saying is the most purchased??
 
Maybe NPR has stuck the wetted finger out in the political winds and want to keep their funding after all the commies are thrown out in a few months?
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Way highroad there, buddy! Member contributions won't suddenly dry up, even if we 'commies' suddenly lose one election.
 
The interview is funny in some ways:
Glock also encouraged police departments to trade in their old equipment for newer, higher-capacity weapons. The old equipment — which contained the higher-capacity magazines manufactured before the ban — was then sold on the used-gun market, and found its way to the streets...

"This process of always finding the exceptions, finding ways around efforts to restrict the Glock became a trademark for the company," he says.
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Trading in old equipment for new (to keep Dept costs down by allowing LE guns to be resold) is as old as John Moses, but apparently Glock invented it just to thwart the AWB!

(Actually, Glock did "thwart" the AWB, by introducing the G26 and 27. Smart.)
'Because the gun is plastic, it'll become a terrorist tool. You'll be able to sneak it into airports, past the metal detectors.' This created a genuine controversy. ... Suddenly people were talking about the Glock before there were even more than a handful of guns in this country. This kind of attention is priceless.
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So, the antigunners spread a false, panicked rumor that made Glock a household name and attractive to Hollywood? How crafty of Glock!??

It seems to me that anti-gunners passed dopey, nonsensical AWB laws that did not take into account standard industry practices; and allowed their own disregard of facts give Glock free pub. I guess when the opposition is that lame-brained, Glock execs do look like Einsteins.
"[Glock] was smart enough to hire a genius salesman...offering them extremely attractive financial terms or hosting police procurement officers at [a famous strip club] in Atlanta...

... A buxom, scantily clad woman appeals to some customers."
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Use sex appeal and low prices to attract mostly male buyers? Who'd athunk it? Genius!!!

But I give the guy credit (at least for playing both sides of the street):
People who don't own guns really need to think about this: It's just darn fun to fire a gun.
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^Yes and no.

According to Wikipedia Glock has made 2.5 million handguns since its founding.
Glock pistols have become the company's most profitable line of products, commanding 65% of the market share of handguns for United States law enforcement agencies[4] as well as supplying numerous national armed forces, security agencies, and law enforcement agencies in 48 countries.

[4]Sweeney, Patrick (2008). The Gun Digest Book of the Glock (2nd ed.). Iola, WI: Krause Publications. ISBN 0896896420.
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I believe "65% of the market share" represents new gun purchases, not 65% of all guns in LEA hands.
 
From the published statistics I have seen from non-GLOCK sources, GLOCK is THE most common gun in police holsters in the US, and the GLOCK 22 the most common version. At my local gun shop GLOCKS outsell others 2 to 1. Where are you getting your data, and what gun are YOU saying is the most purchased??
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Glock is VERY popular in the USA which is a testament to their marketing as much to their quality.

But that is the USA, and I was discussing the WORLD......two very different markets.

Last time I check the majority of Glocks ever manufactured are actually here in the USA in LEO and civilian hands.

So yes, Americans love the Glock.

For what it may be worth my local gun shop says the XD series is their best seller. I'm sure if I checked another shop I would hear Glock.
 
The piece on NPR appears to be an interview with the author of the recently released book "Glock: The Rise of America's Gun". I did not listen to the NPR piece but I have read the book. It's a fascinating story of how the Glock company promoted and marketed the pistol in the USA. While it does include a goodly amount on the guns themselves (the author met up with Massad Ayoob and competed in a shooting competition as part of the research), it's mostly about the company and the business.

For instance: I didn't remember reading at the time that two of the top executive for Glock had engaged in embezzling millions from the company and one of them put out a hit on Gaston Glock. Glock fought off his attacker in a parking garage and the perps were arrested.

If the story appeals to you, I recommend the book.
 
I don't get the safety concern issue with the "lighter" trigger pull, the stock set-up is heavy enough and with enough travel to prevent accidental pulling.
 
I remember reading about Gaston's attack when doing research for my first pistol purchase way back when (which, as it were, was a Glock 20. Doh!)
I may have been a naive young man, or attracted to the glock 'myths', but it was really a cheap way to get into 10mm. It has been sold a long time ago for financing a rock river, but surprisingly, I got maybe forty bucks less than NIB price when I sold it. My old dealer was good about trade in pricing if you bought from him.

Long story short, I wasn't aware of the embezzling portion of that story, but I guess its reinforcement for the Glock myth machine to keep on rolling.
 
falnovice said:
Glock is VERY popular in the USA which is a testament to their marketing as much to their quality.

But that is the USA, and I was discussing the WORLD......two very different markets.

Last time I check the majority of Glocks ever manufactured are actually here in the USA in LEO and civilian hands.

So yes, Americans love the Glock.

For what it may be worth my local gun shop says the XD series is their best seller. I'm sure if I checked another shop I would hear Glock.
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I am not surprised. Springfield has the. Ost aggressive advertising of any importer. The mere play on their name sends that message.
As far as sales the XDm is more expensive than GLock and are on the shelves. Glocks are on back order for many gun stores in my area. They sell faster than the dealers can get them, especially the Gen 4s. Dealers will sell what they have and what makes them profit, as it should be.
 
Just a couple of points.

As I recall Glocks first arrived in the U.S. in the late 1980s not long after the M92 was adopted by the U.S. military as it's sidearm. That is after the law enforcement transition from wheelguns to semis was underway and after the FBI's Miami shootout. The transition had begun but was not finished by any means when Glocks showed up here.

The semis which were in the holsters of law enforcement in those years were largely S&W third generation guns in a number of calibers. These guns are still in service and we still see these guns in holsters of officers particularly out west it seems in departments where guns can be chosen by officers. The Berretta was quite common in those years as well. The S&W guns and the M92 led the way on the "wondernine" guns in the U.S. The Sig line also grew quite a bit.

The Glock design was revolutionary and there were many questions about it. Would the plastic frame hold up to wear? Were they capable of accurate fire? Where is the safety? What about the wretched trigger pull? All of this was good, a part of the discussion and learning curve and free publicity for Glock.

There were a lot of rumors also. When reporters (and possibly some anti gun forces) heard that it was a light weight plastic gun they asked if it showed up as a gun on X-Ray scanners or metal detectors. The question was answered. But the discussion birthed an urban legend that took on a life of it's own-that the gun was undetectable to metal detectors and x-rays. This also proved to be good publicity for Glock as it got the name out and helped an unknown company with an unproven product become well known in a short time. It is unproven that un-named anti gunners started a campaign against Glocks as "terrorist" weapons invisible to metal detectors (raising the question or the accusation is quite different from a campaign). It is also unproven that Glock started the rumor to generate buzz. It is known that an urban legend about the invisible to X-ray plastic gun took off like wild fire and spread far and wide and that the Glock name got out with it.

Good marketing and sales practices ain't a bad thing and Glock had these aplenty. The price to law enforcement for the guns undersold the competition and they worked as well or better. They became very popular.

Glock has also worked hard to keep news of complaints of the gun from law enforcement on the down low. police departments have had a high incidence of unintended discharges with Glocks. More than other guns? That is hard to say but Glocks have become known for it in leo circles.

Glocks have been losing market share in the U.S. to other guns and brands within the last decade. Other makers have introduced a wide range of polymer framed guns and many other options are avail on them. The Walther P99 introduced interchangeable back straps on poly framed guns-a feature we see more often now. Thinner profiles than the Glock are also common. Alternate grip angles, alternate slide profiles, etc. all have eaten into Glocks standing of late.

tipoc
 
Personally, I don't find NPR on face value to be anti-firearm when you actually listen to their reporting.
 
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