Glock
Glock is a brand of polymer-framed, short-recoil-operated, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H.. The firearm, designed by company founder Gaston Glock, entered Austrian military and police service in 1982 as the P80 after outperforming established competitors in reliability and safety tests. Despite initial market resistance to its "plastic" construction, the Glock became the first commercially successful line of pistols with a polymer frame.
The weapon utilizes the company's proprietary "Safe Action" system, which consists of three internal independent safety mechanisms: the trigger safety, firing pin safety, and drop safety. These mechanisms prevent accidental discharge without the use of an external on-off switch. The pistols are also noted for their high magazine capacity relative to their weight and their resistance to corrosion, originally achieved through a ferritic nitrocarburizing surface treatment known as Tenifer.
Glock pistols have become the company's most profitable line of products. They are supplied to national armed forces, security agencies, and police forces in at least 48 countries, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the majority of police agencies in the United States. The product line has evolved through five generations of design changes and is available in a wide variety of calibers, including 9×19mm Parabellum,.40 S&W, 10mm Auto, and.45 ACP, as well as various sizes ranging from the full-sized Glock 17 to the subcompact Glock 26 and "slimline" Glock 43.
The widespread adoption of the design has made the Glock rise in popularity and a subject of gun control debates. In the 2020s, the pistols faced scrutiny regarding the proliferation of "Glock switches," illegal aftermarket auto sears that convert the firearms into machine pistols. This led to lawsuits filed by the states of Minnesota and New Jersey in 2024, and legislation in California in 2025, aimed at forcing design changes to prevent such conversions. In October 2025, Glock announced a major "right-sizing" initiative, ceasing production of over thirty variants to streamline manufacturing and introduce redesigned components to mitigate full-auto conversion.
History
The company's founder and head engineer, Gaston Glock, had no experience with firearms design or manufacture at the time his first pistol, the Glock17, was being prototyped. Glock had extensive experience in advanced synthetic polymers, which was instrumental in the company's design of the first commercially successful line of pistols with a polymer frame. Glock introduced ferritic nitrocarburizing into the firearms industry as an anticorrosion surface treatment for metal gun parts.Development
In 1980, the Austrian Armed Forces announced that it would seek tenders for a new, modern duty pistol to replace their World War II–era Walther P38 handguns. The Federal Ministry of Defence of Austria formulated a list of 17 criteria for the new generation service pistol, including requirements that it would be self loading; fire the NATO-standard 9×19mm Parabellum round; the magazines would not require any means of assistance for loading; not be subject to accidental discharge from shock, strike, and drop from a height of onto a steel plate. After firing 15,000 rounds of standard ammunition, the pistol was to be inspected for wear. The pistol was to then be used to fire an overpressure test cartridge generating. The normal maximum operating pressure for the 9 mm NATO is.Glock became aware of the Austrian Army's planned procurement, and in 1982, assembled a team of Europe's leading handgun experts from military, police, and civilian sport-shooting circles to define the most desirable characteristics in a combat pistol. Within three months, Glock had developed a working prototype that combined proven mechanisms and traits from previous pistol designs. In addition, the plan was to make extensive use of synthetic materials and modern manufacturing technologies, which led to the Glock17 becoming a cost-effective candidate.
Several samples of the Glock17 were submitted for assessment trials in early 1982, and after passing all of the exhaustive endurance and abuse tests, the Glock emerged as the winner. According to Friedrich Dechant, former head of the Austrian Armaments and Defence Technology Agency, the Glock P80 was clearly superior to other handguns in terms of performance, handling, charging capacity and price.
The handgun was adopted into service with the Austrian military and law enforcement in 1982 as the Pistole 80, with an initial order for 25,000 guns. The Glock17 outperformed eight different pistols from five other established manufacturers.
The results of the Austrian trials sparked a wave of interest in Western Europe and overseas, particularly in the United States, where a similar effort to select a service-wide replacement for the M1911 had been going on since the late 1970s. In late 1983, the United States Department of Defense inquired about the Glock pistol and received four samples of the Glock17 for unofficial evaluation. Glock was then invited to participate in the XM9 Personal Defense Pistol Trials, but declined because the DOD specifications would require extensive retooling of production equipment and providing 35 test samples in an unrealistic time frame.
In 1985, after joint Norwegian and Swedish trials from 1983 to 1985, the Glock17 was accepted into service as the P80 in Norway, and in 1988 as the Pistol 88 in Sweden, where it surpassed all prior NATO durability standards. As a result, the Glock17 became a standard NATO-classified sidearm and was granted a NATO Stock Number. By 1992, some 350,000pistols had been sold in more than 45countries, including 250,000 in the United States alone.
Starting in 2013, the British Armed Forces began replacing the Browning Hi-Power pistol with the Glock17Gen4, due to concerns about weight and the external safety of the Hi-Power. The British preferred the Glock17Gen4 over the Beretta Px4 Storm, FN FNP, Heckler & Koch P30, SIG Sauer P226, Smith & Wesson M&P, and Steyr M9A1 of which 19 pistols each, all chambered in 9×19mmParabellum, were entered in the R9GSP trials.
The French Armed Forces in 2020 began replacing their MAC Mle 1950 and, to a lesser extent, their PAMAS G1 pistols with Glock17Gen5 models specifically made for the FAF. The French preferred the Glock17Gen5 over the HS2000 and CZ P-10 offerings that also made it to the final selection phase.
Product evolution
Glock has updated its basic design several times throughout its production history.First-generation models
The first-generation Glock pistols are most notably recognized by their smoother "pebble finish" grip and finger groove-less frames. The Gen 1 frame pattern and design was used by Glock from 1982 through 1988 and pre-dates the checkered grip patterns used in the second generation of Glock pistols. The first Glock17s imported to the US were serialized with an alphanumeric stamped into the slide, barrel, and a small metal plate inserted into the bottom side of the polymer frame. The first documented Glock17s imported into the US were from the AF000series in January 1986, followed by AH000, AK000, and AL000. These early Glock pistols were also manufactured with a barrel that had a smaller overall diameter and thinner bore walls, later known as "pencil barrels". The barrels were later redesigned with thicker bore walls, and manufacturing continued to evolve and improve the design of Glock pistols.Many of the first-generation Glocks were shipped and sold in the iconic "Tupperware" style plastic boxes. The earliest Glock boxes had ammunition storage compartments that allowed for 17 rounds of 9mm to be stored with the pistol. This box design was later changed by Glock to meet BATF import requirements, and the ammunition storage compartments were removed.
Second-generation models
A mid-life upgrade to the Glock pistols involved the addition of checkering on the front strap and trigger guard and checkering and serrations to the back strap. These versions, introduced in 1988, were informally referred to as "second-generation" or Gen2 models, though Glock did not mark the pistols Gen2. In 1991, an integrated recoil spring assembly replaced the original two-piece recoil spring and tube design. The magazine was slightly modified, changing the floorplate and fitting the follower spring with a resistance insert at its base.Third-generation models
In 1998, the frame was further modified with an accessory rail similar to a Picatinny rail to allow the mounting of laser sights, tactical lights, and other accessories. Thumb rests on both sides of the frame and finger grooves on the front strap were added. Glock pistols with these upgrades are informally referred to as "third-generation" models. Later third-generation models additionally featured a modified extractor that serves as a loaded chamber indicator, and the locking block was enlarged, along with the addition of an extra cross pin to aid the distribution of bolt thrust forces exerted by the locking block. This cross pin is known as the locking block pin and is located above the trigger pin.The polymer frames of third-generation models can be black, flat dark earth, or olive drab. Besides that, non-firing dummy pistols and non-firing dummy pistols with resetting triggers have a bright red frame, and Simunition-adapted practice pistols a bright blue frame for easy identification.
In 2009, the Glock22RTF2 was introduced. This pistol featured a new checkering texture around the grip and new scalloped serrations at the rear of the sides of the slide. Many of the existing models became available in the RTF2version, including the 17, 31, 32, 23, 21, and 19. Some of those did not have the fish gills.
Fourth-generation models
At the 2010 SHOT Show, Glock presented the "fourth generation", now dubbed "Gen4" by Glock itself. Updates centered on ergonomics and the recoil spring assembly. The initial two fourth-generation models announced were the full-sized Glock 17 and Glock 22, chambered for the 9×19mm Parabellum and.40 S&W cartridges, respectively. The pistols were displayed with a modified rough-textured frame, front grip strap with finger grooves, interchangeable backstraps of different sizes, and an accessory rail. "Gen4" is on the slide next to the model number to identify the fourth-generation pistols.The basic grip size of the fourth-generation Glock pistols is slightly smaller compared to the previous design. A punch is provided to remove the standard trigger housing pin and replace it with the longer cross pin needed to mount the medium or large backstrap that will increase the trigger distance by or. With the medium backstrap installed, the grip size is identical to the third-generation pistols. The magazine release catches are enlarged and reversible for left-handed use. To use the exchangeable magazine release feature, fourth-generation Glock magazines have a notch cut on both sides of the magazine body. Earlier versions of the magazines will not lock into the Gen4 pistols if the user has moved the magazine release button to be operated by a left-handed user. Gen4 magazines will work in older models.
Mechanically, fourth-generation Glock pistols are fitted with a dual recoil spring assembly to help reduce perceived recoil and increase service life expectancy. Earlier subcompact Glock models such as the Glock 26 and Glock 30 have already used a dual recoil spring assembly that was carried over to the fourth-generation versions of those models. The slide and barrel shelf have been resized, and the front portion of the polymer frame has been widened and internally enlarged, to accommodate the dual recoil spring assembly. The trigger mechanism housing has also been modified to fit into the smaller-sized grip space.
The introduction of fourth-generation Glock pistols continued in July 2010 when the Glock 19 and Glock 23, the reduced size "compact" versions of the Glock 17 and Glock 22, became available for retail. In late 2010, Glock continued the introduction of fourth-generation models with the Glock 26 and Glock 27 "subcompact" variants.
In January 2013, more fourth-generation Glock pistols were introduced commercially during the annual SHOT Show, including the Glock 20 Generation 4 along with other fourth-generation Glock models.