those problems solved they're lightweight they're durable they're plastic they're tough they're in rap songs video games movies and in children's books and before they even started making handguns there were an interior designing there's a rundown on Glock with sales of more than 500 million globally in 2017 nearly 65 percent market share of the handguns in the US the Glock handgun is one of the most recognizable firearms in the world but what many people don't know is that the founder of the Glock pistol mr. Gaston glob didn't start as a gun designer rock began as a manufacturer of curtain rods curtain rods are you kidding me curtain rods curtain rods curtain rods with his wife Helga in the 1960s and came up with Glock gas MBH the leather stand for gesellschaft MIT bits Lankford Huff tongue which translated literally means a company with limited liability it's basically LLC in 76 he learned that the Austrian army had announced a competition to adopt a new knife bayonet that could be fixed on the iconic bullpup the Steyr AAG assault rifle made popular by the best Christmas action movie ever die hard which we'll get back to in a minute and yes it was a Christmas movie so mr. Gaston Glock decided to submit his tender on the knife bayonet the simplicity of the glock knife presented for the Steyr was pretty much a masterpiece featuring a polymer grip and sheath the glock knife renamed the m78 was officially adopted by the austrian army and immediately they ordered 25,000 knives once he had his foot in the door gaston glock started developing other field accessories like trenching tools and polymer munition belts in early 1980 gaston blocked happen to be visiting the headquarters for the Austrian Ministry of Defense the AMD to promote the syllabus polymer products while waiting for his meeting Glock overheard two high-ranking officers discussing production of a handgun to replace the Walther p38 which was currently in use Glock introduced himself to the officers and suggested that he would like to be considered to build the gun and soon after explaining his business theories on resonant polymers he was met with Austrian disdain or they basically left in his face now apparently that's not something that you do to head about he cleverly secured himself on the ministries bidders list on his status as a current supplier and received the specifications for the new gun the AMD formulated a list of seventeen criterias that were to be met for the new generation service pistol here are a few it had to be self loading obviously fire the NATO standard nine by nine millimetre parabellum round had to be secured against accidental discharge from shock strike and from being dropped from a height of two meters on a steel plate the pistol had to be inspected for wear after fifteen thousand rounds and it basically had to shoot plus P ammo he assembled a team of Europe's leading hand and experts from military police and civilian sports shooting circles he asked for their input in designing a new combat handgun he went to work night and day for the next two years within three months Glock developed a working prototype the plan was to make use of synthetic materials for a very cost effective pistol his first pistol took one year to produce from the design and concept stage to production and he applied for the Austrian patent in April 1981 for the pistol that we all know today as you guessed it the Glock 17 now a quick side note for all you guys who don't know what you want to do in life maybe you can find some peace and solace knowing that mr. Glock wasn't planning on changing the entire firearms industry didn't do it after losing his 50s the Glock 17r perform eight different pistols from five other established manufacturers heckler & koch germany who offered their p7 m86 our switzerland fitted with her p 220 and 226 models beretta of italy submitted their model 92 SB for brick Nationale proposed an updated variant of the browning hi-power and the homegrown spire arms entered the competition with the Steyr GB the drop one hands down and that's impressive because most of these gun manufacturers had been making guns for over a century the Glock handgun was adopted into service with the Austrian military and police forces in 1982 with an initial order of 25,000 guns this sparked a wave of interest with the United States where a similar effort was going on to select the service wide replacement for the m1911 check out our video on the Colt 1911 I think it's don't wear ever Dan puts it shortly thereafter Glock 17 became a standard NATO classified sidearms by 1992 some 350,000 pistols had been sold in more than 45 countries including 250,000 a quarter of a million here in the United States alone that's crazy that's crazy awesome man god bless america Glock 17 wasn't named for its capacity as many people think gaston Glock was an inventor and already had 16 patents on file when he started working on the Glock 17 since the pistol design would be a 17th patent he called it the Glock wait for it here it comes ah about 17 the coincidence at the Glock 17 could hold 17 rounds in its magazine was nothing more than circumstantial in 1990 the Glock 17 made its first big appearance in a Hollywood blockbuster movie die hard - I told you I was gonna get back to the die hard movies Glock didn't care much that the pistol was being used by the bad guys and not the hero they were just happy that their gun was gonna get some exposure in a big-time action movie now there's a scene where John McClane played by Bruce Willis refers to the Glock 17 as the Glock 7 which is made from porcelain and can be picked up by airport metal detectors and cost more than a Dulles Airport Chief of Police monthly salary Oh steel and luggage that punk pulled a Glock 7 oh you know what that is it's a porcelain gun made in Germany doesn't show up on your airport x-ray machines they're gonna cost more than you make in a month you'd be surprised what I'm making a month these mistakes are so obvious and glaring that you have to wonder why someone who knew better didn't speak up and stop this foolishness well someone did armored mike papac who supplied the movie with firearms used spoke up he tried to talk the moviemakers out of using those lines but the people in charge wouldn't hear of it they told Mike that the lines were written into the script and that was the end of the conversation so after this the media touted the Glock has been immune to detection by metal detectors ah the birth of the mythical ghost gun it didn't last long though the initial thoughts were soon dismissed all right let's get down to the pistols yes yes the first generation of Glocks debuted with the Glock 17 and 19 as previously mentioned and was chambered in nine millimeter the Glock 17 was purchased by numerous militaries around the world and it was presented and demonstrated to police chiefs across the US now the law enforcement world was still using revolvers at the time for the most part and a semi-automatic pistol let alone a lightweight polymer frame model with no manual thumb safety wasn't widely accepted at the time side note many people think that Glocks don't have a safety mechanism that's simply not true Glocks come with three independently operating mechanical safeties which are built into the fire control system of the pistol Glock calls it the safe action system it basically allows the user to concentrate fully on shooting without having to disengage and re-engage safeties it also means that it's safe of its dropped and functions at extreme temperatures shooters immediately tried and failed to wear out the pistols by shooting thousands of rounds through them gloves were dropped from helicopters frozen and ice dunked in mud and buried in sand and after all the torture tests the blocks continued to perform flawlessly the soft shooting 9-millimeter Glock 17 was lightweight accurate and reliable and immediately became a favourite with the shooters everywhere in 1986 the black 18 was introduced as a select-fire variant for law enforcement military use only with the selector lever in the bottom position the pistol goes into full auto the rate of fire in fully automatic mode is around 1,100 to 1,200 rounds per minute it's awesome I think we have some fun at ear in 1988 one of the best-selling blocks as we know today hit the market the Glock 19 police chiefs liked the block 17 pistol benita door of a compact pistol for detectives and plainclothes officers the 19 had a shortened grip and smaller magazine for better concealment while still holding 15 rounds in a standard magazine the barrel length was also shortened by about a half inch by this time everyone was getting in on the Block action competitive shooters demanded and got the pistol of their own as well it had a longer barrel and slide and was made it to the Glock 17 frame they called it the Glock 17 L soon after the gentoos were released with more caliber choices the 40 Smith & Wesson was gaining popularity with law enforcement agencies so in 1990 Glock introduced the full-size Glock 22 and soon after the compact Glock 23 in that caliber Glocks were given big bore firepower as well more power baby the Glock 20 was chambered in the 10 millimeter auto while the Glock 21 was chambered in none other than America's around the 45 ACP cue the Eagle in 1994 the 357 cartridge came out as an answer to replicate the ballistics of the 357 Magnum now Glocks on opportunity and came out with the Glock 31 full-size in 1996 it followed with the Glock 32 compact version soon after that quick sidenote in 1990 put some record labels on notice to stop using the Glock name and gangster rap songs who was producing mainly out of the fear that Glocks name would become a generic term for handgun now while many complied most didn't they also added a forward accessory rail these models included the Glock 19 see the Glock 20 the box when you see the Glock 21 21 see 26 27 28 29 30 33 36 and 39 block also introduced the short frame SF variants for some models for these the trigger reach was shortened by slimming down the grips to better accommodate shooters with small hands the SF models include the big bore ten millimeter Glock 20 SF and the 45 ACP Glock 21 SF it was around this time in 1997 that Glock sued Smith & Wesson for patent infringement on its sigma pistols aka the Glock and Wesson the suit was settled out of court when Smith & Wesson agreed to alter the Sigma and pay undisclosed damages to God in 2002 Glock introduced a 45 gap or the Glock automatic pistol round aka the 45 Glock cartridge Glock requested this round to equal the firepower of the 45 ACP but in a shorter cartridge similar to the 9-millimeter so that it can fit a more compact handgun it was around those supposed to replace the veteran 45 but as you guys know it just didn't happen while all this was going on in 1999 Glocks longtime business associate Charles inlet a financial genius hired a former French mercenary to murder Cadillac now even was trying to cover up his embezzlement of more than 30 million from the Glock corporation even to add a blog to a Luxembourg parking garage to look at a sports car while they were there a man came out of the shadows and attacked mr. Gough Gaston glob who was always physically fit swimming miles day managed to fight off the hitmen even after being struck in the head with a hammer seven times the hit man who got 17 years in the slammer and even was sentenced to 20 had a Glock would later say that the attack was the best thing that ever happened to him otherwise I would have gone on trusting Yvette in early 2010 Glock introduced its Gen 4 pistols which now features a slightly less aggressive frame texturing than the previous generations Gen 4 models also come with interchangeable backstraps to help with different sized hands a reversible magazine catch a dual recoil spring assembly which is designed to help reduce felt recoil and a new trigger system they also have Gen 4 roll marked after the model number on the left side of the slide some of models that were introduced in the Gen 4 era include the Glock 30s which is a slimmer version of about 30 the bout 41 which is a competition sized pistol chambered in 45 ACP the Glock 42 which addresses the popularity of the 380 acp cartridge for concealed carry and the ever so popular glock 43 a purposely built concealed carry single stack pistol chambered in 9-millimeter Glock also introduced the modular optics system or MOS configuration pistols now the mos features slides that come with mounting plates to accept the variety of popular miniature reflex sights MOS includes the Glock 17 the Glock 19 the 34 35 the Glock 40 and the black 41 black Gen 5 pistols are the latest examples of Glocks constant pursuit of perfection introduced in 2017 the Gen 5 pistols feature over 20 design modifications from the Gen 4 predecessors including the Glock marksman barrel for increased accuracy a new end dlc finish on all slides and a flared magwell just to name a few even the slide cover plate is different we kind of feel bad for all the guys out there who bought custom cover it's well almost not really block has also introduced the Glock 19 X which is a crossover pistol it's controversial design takes the Glock 19 and adds the larger grip of the Glock 17 four more rounds and better control now a lot of people were dumbfounded thinking why would God do that why would they make a gun harder to conceal riding a bigger frame well the Glock 19 X wasn't meant for that it was built to meet the US Army's modular handgun system specifications it's made for fighting period it's got a lanyard loop and it comes in a Kody tan color for crying out loud soon after Glock introduced the Glock 45 it's basically a Glock 19 X without the lanyard loop and in a nondescript black finish may need to suit law enforcement again some people were not happy many thought that when Glock said it was going to introduce another crossover then we're gonna get a longer slide on a shorter frame but who wants to buy a gun that looks like this now these crossover guns have sold very well so well in fact that Glock took this idea to one of its most praised concealed carry gun the Glock 43 and made yes you've got it the Glock 43 X they made the grip longer for more capacity and it went from a 6 plus 1 to a 10 plus one rounds unlike its prior ex models that made consume and harder with a longer grip this one is still very conceivable one of its most recent releases is the Glock 48 or the Canadian Glock 19 as some call it we'll get to that in a sec the Glock 48 is a 9-millimeter handgun that basically takes the frame of the Glock 43 X and adds a longer barrel to it making it a slimline handgun which is still a great option for concealed carry especially in Canada this is because a stop block 19 is not legal in Canada don't you know the Canadian government feels that the Glock 19 barrel is too short and it's 15 round capacity is too large now Canadian gun law specified that handguns sold to the general public must have a barrel length of no less than 105 millimetres in overall length of about 48 is equipped with a barrel length of 4.18 inches and in metric that converts to 106 millimetres stepping over the line just enough for legal sell in Canada now since Canada is one of the largest reoccurring markets for outside the US it only made sense for Glock to make a gun that was legal their Glock offers over 50 pistols in a variety of sizes calibers and styles today and whether you like Glock or not there's no mistaking the influence that mr. Gaston Glock has made on modern firearms today guys thanks for watching I hope you enjoyed this video make sure if you like comment and subscribe and go check out Bravo concealment for every day carry needs and check out these videos as well catch you guys later [Music]
