Glock Ges.m.b.H. (trademarked as GLOCK) is a weapons manufacturer headquartered in
Deutsch-Wagram
Deutsch-Wagram (literally "German Wagram", ), often shortened to Wagram, is a village in the Gänserndorf District, in the state of Lower Austria, Austria. It is in the Marchfeld Basin, close to the Vienna city limits, about 15 km (9 mi) northeas ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, named after its founder,
Gaston Glock
Gaston Glock (born 19 July 1929) is an Austrian engineer and businessman who is the founder of the company Glock, who are best known for developing the Glock pistol in 1981.
Manufacturing
Glock began as a manufacturer of curtain rods in the 1960 ...
. While the company is best known for its line of
polymer
A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part")
is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...
-
framed pistol
A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, an ...
s, it also produces field
knives
A knife ( : knives; from Old Norse 'knife, dirk') is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evidenced ...
,
entrenching tool
An entrenching tool (U.K.), intrenching tool (U.S.), E-tool, or trenching tool is a digging tool used by military forces for a variety of military purposes. Survivalists, campers, hikers and other outdoors groups have found it to be indispensabl ...
s, and
apparel
Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...
.
Glock handguns are used by armed forces and law enforcement organizations worldwide, including a majority of law enforcement agencies in the United States.
In some countries Glock handguns are popular with citizens for personal protection and practical shooting. The company sponsors a competitive shooting team which travels worldwide.
As of 2014, Glock produces
more than two dozen models of handguns in three sizes and seven cartridges in three calibers.
Products
Handguns
Glock handguns are common sidearms among law enforcement agencies and military organizations around the world, and are also largely popular weapons amongst civilians for home defense, and concealed/open carry. The popularity of Glock pistols can be attributed to a number of factors. They are widely reputed as highly reliable, being able to function under extreme conditions and to fire a wide range of ammunition types (
9mm,
10mm
The following are examples of orders of magnitude for different lengths.
__TOC__
Overview
Detailed list
To help compare different orders of magnitude, the following list describes various lengths between 1.6 \times 10^ metres and 10^ ...
,
.40 S&W,
.45 ACP
The .45 ACP ( Automatic Colt Pistol) or .45 Auto (11.43×23mm) is a rimless straight-walled handgun cartridge designed by John Moses Browning in 1904, for use in his prototype Colt semi-automatic pistol. After successful military trials, it ...
,
.45 GAP
The .45 GAP (Glock Auto Pistol) or .45 Glock (11.43×19mm) is a pistol cartridge designed by Ernest Durham, an engineer with CCI/Speer, at the request of firearms manufacturer Glock to provide a cartridge that would equal the power of the ...
,
.357 SIG
The .357 SIG (designated as the 357 Sig by the SAAMI and 357 SIG by the C.I.P. or 9×22mm in unofficial metric notation) is a bottlenecked rimless centerfire handgun cartridge developed by the Swiss- German firearms manufacturer SIG Sauer, ...
,
.380 ACP
The .380 ACP (9×17mm) ( Automatic Colt Pistol) is a rimless, straight-walled pistol cartridge developed by firearms designer John Moses Browning. The cartridge headspaces on the mouth of the case.Wilson, R. K. ''Textbook of Automatic Pisto ...
, and
.22 LR
The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, smooth ...
; third-party conversion kits for
.400 Corbon
The .400 Corbon is an automatic pistol cartridge developed by Cor-Bon in 1997. It was created to mimic the ballistics of the 10 mm Auto cartridge in a .45 ACP form factor.
It is essentially a .45 ACP case, necked down to .40 caliber with a 2 ...
,
.40 Super
The .40 Super is a powerful automatic pistol cartridge developed in 1996 and introduced to the market by Triton Cartridge. The cartridge was co-developed by Fernando Coelho and Tom Burczynski.
It never attained mainstream success, Triton Cartri ...
, and
.50 GI
The .50 GI (12.7×23mmRB) pistol cartridge was developed by Alex Zimmermann of Guncrafter Industries. The .50 GI was introduced at the 2004 SHOT Show alongside the Guncrafter Industries Model No. 1, a variation of the M1911. The round has a ...
are also available). The simplicity of the Glock design as well as its simple operating method contributes to this reliability, as it contains a relatively small number of components (nearly half as many as the typical handgun, each of these being interchangeable requiring no hand-fitting) making maintenance and repair easier and less costly. On 10 December 2019, Glock introduced their first production-Model .22-caliber Pistol, The Glock 44.
The polymer frame makes them lighter than typical steel or aluminum-framed handguns, an attractive feature for police officers and regular citizens who carry firearms for extended periods of time. The trigger is the only operating element; all three
safeties
Safety is the condition of being protected against harmful conditions or events, or the control of hazards to reduce risk.
Safety may also refer to:
Places
* Safety Island, Antarctica
Government
* The Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the ...
are deactivated when the trigger is pulled, and automatically activated when it is released. Glock pistols have no other manual safeties (as some other brands have an external safety often in the form of a lever or button); the only external controls aside from the trigger itself are the slide stop lever, the magazine catch, and the slide lock for disassembly. This adds to the simplicity of use and removes a potential source of error while operating the handgun under stress. Most of the steel components in a Glock pistol are treated with a
nitriding
Nitriding is a heat treating process that diffuses nitrogen into the surface of a metal to create a case-hardened surface. These processes are most commonly used on low-alloy steels. They are also used on titanium, aluminium and molybdenum.
Ty ...
process called "
Tenifer
Ferritic nitrocarburizing or FNC, also known by the proprietary names Tenifer, Tufftride and Melonite as well as ARCOR,Other trade names include Tuffride/ Tuffrider, QPQ, Sulfinuz, Sursulf, Meli 1, and Nitride, among others is a range of proprie ...
", which increases the surface hardness and makes the pistol resistant to corrosion and wear.
Though the
Heckler & Koch VP70
The VP70 is a 9×19mm, 18-round, double action only, semi-automatic/three-round burst capable polymer frame pistol manufactured by German arms firm Heckler & Koch GmbH. VP stands for ''Volkspistole'' (literally "People's Pistol"), and the desig ...
was the first polymer-framed pistol and predates the Glock 17 by 12 years, the popularity of Glock pistols inspired other manufacturers to begin production of similar polymer-framed firearms, including the
Walther P99
The Walther P99 () is a semi-automatic pistol developed by the German company Carl Walther GmbH Sportwaffen of Ulm for law enforcement, security forces and the civilian shooting market as a replacement for the Walther P5 and the P88. The P99 and ...
,
Smith & Wesson Sigma,
HS2000
The HS2000 (''Hrvatski Samokres'', ) is a series of semi-automatic pistols. Polymer-framed and striker-fired, the series is manufactured by HS Produkt (formerly I.M. Metal) in Karlovac, Croatia. In Europe, the pistols are marketed as the HS and ...
(Springfield Armory XD),
Steyr M
The Steyr M is a series of semi-automatic pistols developed by Steyr Mannlicher GmbH & Co KG of Austria for police services and the civilian shooting market. Design work on the new pistol began in the early 1990s and the final product known as t ...
,
Taurus PT 24/7
The Taurus PT 24/7 is a semi-automatic pistol using the short type of recoil operation, and available in various models with double-action-only (DAO) and double action/single-action-type trigger actions. Using a hammerless, striker-fired des ...
,
Caracal
The caracal (''Caracal caracal'') () is a medium-sized wild cat native to Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and arid areas of Pakistan and northwestern India. It is characterised by a robust build, long legs, a short face, long tufted e ...
,
FN Herstal FNP and
Ruger SR9
The Ruger SR-Series is a line of semi-automatic pistols manufactured by Sturm, Ruger & Company. At thick through the grip, it is touted by Ruger as one of the thinnest double-stack pistols available. The SR-series has been marketed as a backu ...
pistols.
In addition to their semi-automatic handguns, Glock also produces a
select-fire
Selective fire is the capability of a weapon to be adjusted to fire in semi-automatic, fully automatic, and/or burst mode. The modes are chosen by means of a selector switch, which varies depending on the weapon's design. Some selective-fire we ...
pistol, the Glock 18, which is able to be fired in either
semi-automatic or
fully automatic
An automatic firearm is an auto-loading firearm that continuously chambers and fires rounds when the trigger mechanism is actuated. The action of an automatic firearm is capable of harvesting the excess energy released from a previous discharge ...
mode. This model is generally available only to law enforcement or military organizations and the details of its production are seemingly classified. Conversion kits for other Glocks to be fired in fully automatic mode also exist, but they are third-party, and they are specifically marked as Title 2 devices by the U.S.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), commonly referred to as the ATF, is a domestic law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and preven ...
– restricting their purchase and possession to ATF 3 license Dealers in the US.
Knives
![Glock Feldmesser FM 78 noBG](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Glock_Feldmesser_FM_78_noBG.jpg)
Glock currently manufactures two models of knives, the ''Feldmesser 78'' (Field Knife 78) and the ''Feldmesser 81'' (Survival Knife 81).
The Field Knife 78 is a classic type knife, with a blade and overall length. The Survival Knife 81 has the same overall dimensions with an additional saw on the back of the blade. The Field Knife 78 weighs and the Survival Knife 81 weighs .
The grips and sheaths are made of polymer and are available in three colors:
olive drab
Olive is a dark yellowish-green color, like that of unripe or green olives.
As a color word in the English language, it appears in late Middle English. Shaded toward gray, it becomes olive drab.
Variations
Olivine
Olivine is the typical ...
,
sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...
, and black. As of 2016 Glock introduced a new grey color variant of Field Knife 81 and has plans to discontinue Field Knife 78 in other colors than black.
Entrenching tool
![Glock Feldspaten](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Glock_Feldspaten.jpg)
Glock also produces an
entrenching tool
An entrenching tool (U.K.), intrenching tool (U.S.), E-tool, or trenching tool is a digging tool used by military forces for a variety of military purposes. Survivalists, campers, hikers and other outdoors groups have found it to be indispensabl ...
, the ''Feldspaten'' (field spade).
The Feldspaten features a hardened metal spade blade that can be locked in three positions for digging, shoveling, and chopping, and a telescopic handle made out of
fiberglass
Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...
-reinforced
nylon
Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic.
Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from petro ...
containing a long hardened metal sawblade.
The entrenching tool weighs and fully extended is long. The spade and handle can be collapsed and shortened for easy transport and storage into a 260 mm × 150 mm × 60 mm (10 in × 6 in × in) package.
The entrenching tool is supplied with a nylon storage/transport pouch that can be attached to a belt or backpack.
Subsidiaries
Glock current international subsidiaries are:
* Glock America N.V. (
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
)
* Glock, Inc. (United States)
* Glock (H.K.) Ltd. (
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
)
* Glock Middle East FZE (
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
)
* Glock do Brasil S.A. (
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
)
Embezzlement
Glock has been the target of multiple embezzlement schemes involving high-ranking officers of the company or others closely related to the company. In 1999, Charles Ewert attempted to murder
Gaston Glock
Gaston Glock (born 19 July 1929) is an Austrian engineer and businessman who is the founder of the company Glock, who are best known for developing the Glock pistol in 1981.
Manufacturing
Glock began as a manufacturer of curtain rods in the 1960 ...
after Glock asked for a meeting regarding an accusation of embezzlement. Ewert was convicted of attempted murder along with an accomplice for his involvement.
In April 2012,
Paul Jannuzzo, the former CEO of US subsidiary Glock, Inc., was convicted of
racketeering
Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit.
Originally and of ...
regarding his involvement in an embezzlement scheme against the company.
Investigation of these cases brought to light questionable financial dealings in the background and complicated ownership structure hidden behind a string of
shell companies
A shell corporation is a company or corporation that exists only on paper and has no office and no employees, but may have a bank account or may hold passive investments or be the registered owner of assets, such as intellectual property, or s ...
in favourable
tax locations around the world.
References
Further reading
* Boatman, Robert H. ''Living With Glocks: The Complete Guide to the New Standard in Combat Handguns''. Paladin Press, Boulder. 2002. .
* Kasler, Peter Alan. ''Glock : The New Wave in Combat Handguns''. Paladin Press, Boulder. 1992. .
* Sweeney, Patrick. ''The Gun Digest Book of the Glock: A Comprehensive Review: Design, History, Use''. Krause Publications, Iola, Wis. 2003. .
* Sweeney, Patrick. ''The Gun Digest Book of the Glock, 2nd Edition''. Gun Digest Books, Iola, Wis. 2008. .
* Taylor, Robin. ''The Glock in Competition, 2nd Edition''. Taylor Press, Bellingham. 2005. .
External links
Glock's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glock Ges.M.B.H.
Manufacturing companies established in 1963
Firearm manufacturers of Austria
Knife manufacturing companies
Manufacturing companies of Austria
Economy of Lower Austria
1963 establishments in Austria