Glock Ges.m.b.H. (trademarked as GLOCK) is a weapons manufacturer headquartered in Deutsch-Wagram,

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 196 ...

. 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, a ...

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, 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 t ...

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. T ...

process called " Tenifer", which increases the surface hardness and makes the pistol resistant to corrosion and wear. Though the Heckler & Koch VP70 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 an ...

, 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 desig ...

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 ...

, FN Herstal FNP and Ruger SR9 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 w ...

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 discha ...

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 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 typic ...

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 ...

, 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 also produces an

, 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 cl ...

-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 pet ...

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 List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

) * 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 (Middle East, The Middle East). It is ...

) * 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

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 ...

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 ...

in favourable tax locations around the world.

References

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