Originally published in the May 1986 issue of American Rifleman.

There has been a lot in the news media lately on the Glock 17 pistol. Most of it, as might be expected of the anti-gun press’s coverage of any firearms, is pure hogwash.

Without going into details that would lead to irritation at best and apoplexy at worst, it should be said that:

A: The Glock 17 is not an “all plastic gun”—it is, in fact and weight, about 83% steel.

B: The Glock 17 does not “pass through metal detectors undetected.” Nineteen ounces of steel plus about 4 ozs. of lead, if a pistol and a full magazine are considered, should trip any metal detector—providing the unit is plugged in.

C. The Glock 17 is not “invisible when passed through an X-ray screen.” It looks like what it is—again, provided the machine is plugged in, and assuming the viewer knows his or her business and is attending to it.

D. Given A, B and C, we are really baffled by this one: “The Libyans are said to be trying covert methods to obtain these weapons.” Why is the Glock 17 better for Libyans than other pistols? Since the Glock 17s are on the world market, why the “covert methods.” Last, but not least, who started the rumor and why—other than to make a catchy story? We don’t know and nobody in the U.S. or Austrian governments seems to either. Nor does Gaston Glock, the pistol’s designer, manufacturer, and chairman of the board at Glock G.m.b.H. of Deutch-Wagram, Austria.

Glock visited the NRA during the height of the anti-gun press idiocy on his pistol. Together with Wolfgang Riedl, his marketing manager, and Karl Walter, the U.S. importer, he could throw no light on the Libyan tall tale source or make anything of the press reports on his “detection-proof pistol.” So much for the rumors.

Glock, however, has many facts at his disposal, and we took advantage of his visit to get some first-hand information on what turns out to be a very interesting—but not supernatural—pistol.

His answer to our first question regarding his gun background was a real eye opener.

“In 1980, I didn’t know the difference between a pistol and a revolver” Glock told us. Things progressed from there.

In 1963, Glock, a mechanical engineer with a background in synthetic materials, formed a company to produce furniture and hardware. The company eventually made combat knives, bayonets, and entrenching shovels for the Austrian military that are still in the line and available in the U.S.

In 1980, Glock saw a copy of the Austrian military’s pistol requirement form, but thought little of it. Essentially, it called for 9 mm Parabellum chambering, a large capacity magazine, light weight and durability.

Then, however, his 15-man factory was approached by a foreign pistol maker that was interested in the Austrian requirement but wanted an Austrian manufacturing or assembly site—preferably Glock G.m.b.H. No deal was made, but Glock began to take matters seriously. When two more foreign pistol makers approached him with similar proposals, he made his decision.

He studied military pistols, test procedures and requirements from all over the world and, with two of his employees, turned out a working prototype in exactly six months. It didn’t suit him in every particular, so ,barely giving him time to return to the drawing board, he made a second prototype in two months.

That prototype is, in every detail, the same as the pistol now used by the Austrian Army and issued in a quantity of 28,000 pieces.

If there is a similar success story around that involves a man innocent of even basic gun knowledge, and a totally new gun, we are unaware of it.

At any rate, the deed was done and a major European nation is using the Glock. Is any other nation using it? Yes, Glock told us, Norway has accepted the Glock 17, and in three years the Norwegian Army will be totally armed with it. This is of more than passing interest for, while Austria is not, Norway is a NATO member and the Glock is, therefore, a NATO standard pistol. In addition, we were told, many military and police units are considering the Glock 17, and some have purchased it in more than trial quantities. Not the Libyans, however.

“Does the factory still only have 15 workers?”, we naively asked. Glock smiled and told us that, no, there are about 40 involved in the pistol project, but one man controls the computer panel that, in turn, controls all the ultra-modern, fully computerized machinery.

Here, Glock feels, is one of his great assets. He has visited many arms factories in the last few years and confesses to amazement at the great numbers of “obsolete equipment mixed in with some modern equipment” found in virtually all of them. Except his.

What use does Glock G.m.b.H. make of sub-suppliers, we asked, and again got a surprising answer and another reason that Glock thinks he has an advantage over the competition.

“We make absolutely everything ourselves except the springs and raw material. The steel slide material is received in profiled bar form; we mill it to shape. The polymer is received to our patented specifications; we mold it and so forth. We also do the finishing, of course, and use three hardening processes for the slide and barrel. The final hardening produces the patented 70 Rockwell Cone finish that is harder than a file.”

A two-part question was what Glock’s next firearm project would be and if he visualized an all-plastic gun.

To this, he said his next gun, if any, would be another one tailored to Austrian military requirements. He feels, and he should know, that plastics or polymers have not yet reached the stage where they could be used alone to produce a military-acceptable firearm.

As Glock was, with commendable speed, fully disassembling one of his pistols with only a small punch (a nail would have done nicely), we gave him a final question.

“How does the U.S.-imported Glock differ from your Austrian and Norwegian service pistols?”

We were told that the only differences, aside from markings, are that to the U.S. pistol was added the molded-in serial number plate in the polymer frame, and the rear sight that is click-adjustable for elevation. Period.

Other questions remained, but these were best answered, in the absence of Messrs. Flock, Riedl and Walter, by a normal examination of and test session with the intriguing new pistol.

The Glock 17 is a locked-breech, hammerless pistol that is sometimes called a “double-action.” The term is misleading, and while Glock’s preferred term “Safe-Action” is not self-explanatory, Glock’s terminology and parts illustration are used here to explain matters.