Courtesy of Tactical Life
Listening in on shooters’ conversations when the first Glock pistols hit our shores in the 1980s, you’d have heard some less-than-enthusiastic comments from a portion of the public and press. Eventually, a funny thing happened: The polymer-framed pistol from Austria went from damned to praiseworthy.
Many of the handguns riding in holsters on Sam Browne belts across the country (especially the iconic revolver) began to morph into matte black Glocks. A few elite military units here and abroad began to pack Glocks, and the world tilted even more on its axis.
Soon law enforcement officers began choosing Glocks because of the record they were garnering for their reliability, durability, effectiveness, relative simplicity and high capacity for holding 9mm rounds. (No other calibers were available for Glocks back then.) Carrying spare magazines increased an officer’s ammo supply on patrol, putting them on par or ahead of anyone else.
The qualities making Glocks a good choice for law enforcement officers were probably not as evident to pre-Glock police officers as they are today. Reliability is at the top of the list. A high-capacity firearm becomes a club if it doesn’t always go bang.
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