Book Review: Glock: The Rise of America's Gun

   In April 1986 a bloody FBI shootout in Miami focused attention on the perception that law enforcement – usually armed with standard six round revolvers - was "outgunned" by criminals with semi-automatic weapons. American police departments began looking for a better gun.

   The timing was just right for a new gun manufactured by a former radiator factory manager in Austria named Gaston Glock. In February 1980 Glock had learned that the Austrian Army was in the market for a new sidearm. Glock decided he wanted a chance to bid on the contract.

   Glock owned a second-hand metal press, and he and his wife had a home business making hinges, curtain rods, and knives. The knives were good enough to be contracted by the Austrian army.

   Glock knew very little about guns, however, and didn’t even own one before purchasing several to disassemble and study. He also picked the brains of firearm specialists and military personnel to learn what they wanted in the "pistol of the future."

   Glock got quite a list from these people. Their ideal gun would have a large capacity, a safer safety, fewer parts, and a light trigger pull for fast, accurate firing. It would be light, easy to holster, and still fire after contact with rain, snow, and mud.

   How this industrious Austrian developed the gun that bears his name and how it came to be the preferred weapon of American police is the subject of Paul Barrett’s Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun. "Filled with corporate intrigue, political maneuvering, Hollywood glitz, bloody shoot-outs – and an attempt on Gaston Glock’s life by a former lieutenant – Glock is the inside account of how Glock the company went about marketing its pistol to police agencies and later the public" (Amazon).

   Timing was often key to Glock’s success in America. Just as law enforcement’s call for more gun power came when Gaston Glock was ready to market to the United States, so the company was able to benefit from the Assault Weapons Ban that went into effect in September 1994.

   While some gun manufacturers were distraught at the passage of the ban, others like Glock saw opportunity. The ban grandfathered all weapons in existence at the time of the bill’s enactment. Glock’s advisors knew that the "political controversy and the perception of a finite supply would pump up demand and prices . . . Glock ordered production into high gear."

   Interviewed in May 1994, a Glock representative in the United States said, "We’re getting five thousand guns and eight thousand to nine thousand magazines a week from Austria . . . We’re tens of thousands of orders behind. Our pistols are scarcer than hen’s teeth."

   Marketing was another key to the Glock’s success in the United States. Gaston Glock hired a genius marketer named Karl Walter.

   Originally from Austria, Walter sold European firearms out of a customized motorhome to police departments and gun collectors. He had read about the Glock in a German weapons magazine and was intrigued by the unknown engineer who had bested the established brands and won a contract to supply his guns to the Austrian Army. Glock hadn’t really thought about expanding to the United States, but Walter managed to convince him.

   One of the first things Walter did was arrange a "scoop" for Soldier of Fortune magazine which headlined the Glock as "Plastic Perfection." Walter also wooed American police departments , offering discounted prices and gun trade-ins.

   When Glock built its facility in Smyrna, Georgia, Walter created an atmosphere where police and federal agents felt welcome. It offered courses on the use and maintenance of the Glock, a firing range, and a "clubhouse" atmosphere. Thursday evenings were often spent at the Gold Club, Atlanta’s premiere venue for erotic dancing, where the company had its own VIP room. Walter even chose the best-looking stripper to promote the  Glock at the gun industry’s show in Las Vegas. (She had to go through the standard four day Glock training and was top shooter in her class.)

   Walter also arranged for the Glock to become prominent in movies and television. The gun eventually became popular with hip hop artists. (The ease of rhyming didn’t hurt.)

   Even the eventual lawsuits were used to the company’s advantage. When municipalities  tried to sue the gun industry for making so many high-powered handguns available to criminals, the practice of trade ins came back to bite the police departments. Most of the  thousands of guns traded in for new Glocks ended up on the secondary market and out on the streets.

   Barrett’s account of the ascent of the Glock company and its business practices is fascinating and the focus of the book, but it’s not all you’ll get out of it. If you know nothing about the mechanics of guns, you’ll learn a lot. (I’ve never handled a gun, but I was able to understand most of the technical sections.)

   Of course, Barrett can’t avoid the gun control debate, but he handles it with balance. He traces the evolution of gun culture in the United States, especially the handgun. He reminds us that there were times when high schools had rifle teams that practiced in the basement (Easton was one) and when summer camps taught archery and riflery. Barrett admits that "it’s just darn fun to fire a gun."

   On the last pages, Barrett concludes that the Glock "is not a particular villain within the fraternity of firearms. Nor is it a hero…." The company was "created to do one thing: manufacture and sell pistols." And it did that very well.

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The Non-Fiction Book Club meets at 7:00 on Wednesday, February 27, at the Easton Area Public Library to discuss Glock: The Rise of the American Gun.

The March book is Wild: from Lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed.