Experts Find Glocks Prone To Accidents

Syracuse Post-Standard ^ | 8/7/02 | John O'Brien

[Cap'n Crunch]

Two of the last three guns that we took were Glocks. One guy was a drug dealer that tried to run over one of our detectives. He tossed his Glock during the car chase and it was found the next day.

I took a Glock off of a guy at a drug/prostitution house yesterday. That was interesting.

Then the woman who was doing robberies to support her crack cocaine habit had a foreign made .380 gem that the officer had a ND with.

She admitted to hiding in the closet and smoking her last rocks of crack when she saw the cops pull up in her driveway LOL.

[justlurking]

When I got my mod 22, it already had what I thought was at least an eight pound pull. I will confess to thinking (for a moment) that a 3-4 pound trigger might be a bit skinny

Standard Glock 22's have a 5.5 pound trigger pull: http://www.glock.com/g22.htm. If it is more than that, it's probably a "New York" trigger (8 pounds).

My Glock 35 has a 3.5 pound trigger: even lighter than the standard 4.5 pound for that model. But, I shoot it exclusively in competition.

[justlurking]

The point was that there is much less margin for inattention when dealing with a no-safety 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 lb pull as opposed to a 12-14 lb DA pull.

As others have noted, the standard Glock does not have a 2-1/2 - 3-1/2 lb trigger pull. The standard is 5.5 lbs for typical duty weapons.

Competition models have lower trigger pulls (4-1/2 lb), and mine is even lower. But, they aren't intended to be used as duty weapons.

[justlurking]

This happened to a friend of mine who's a policeman: The department issue pistol was a S&W 4059 that has the internal mag safety, ambidextrous mag releases, and a drop-free mag. He pulled it on a felon with warrants at a traffic stop, and the safety dropped to the ground before he even got it level. Even though he had a round in the chamber, he might as well been holding a banana.

A friend that owned a gun store told me a similar story. An officer bought a S&W semi-auto from him and subsequently got into a "wrestling match" with a perp, losing the magazine. The gun turned into a club and the officer had to finish the arrest without it.

He returned and exchanged it for something else. I don't remember what it was.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Do you have a source for this? I thought I recalled reading, re some previous case of a LEO's accidental discharge, that the NYPD Glocks were customized to have a LIGHT trigger pull -- which would go a long way toward explaining the high rate of ADs. Perhaps it was some other police department I'm remembering.

[Travis McGee]

Does he still wear the jacket?

[B4Ranch]

ping

[TheBattman]

The gun's inadvertent firing in the hands of a gun expert

A rather loose use of the word expert, wouldn't you all agree???

[TheBattman]

They also require a convoluted method to clear them

They do? The one Glock I have ever had experience with was no more difficult than my Ruger P90 to clear. What's so convoluted?

[glock rocks]

brain fade my ass. these stupid bastards shouldn't be let outside without mommy. they might be run down by garbage trucks.

i'll have to put a little more attitude into my response in a bit... i have to run outside right now, i think my G30 grabbed the keys to my SUV and is headed down to do a job on the quickie mart.

these morons need a gun that can't be loaded and a trigger that is welded in place... something GUARANTEED to be safe when they INADVERTANTLY PULL THE DAMNED TRIGGER. oh, and God forbid there should be A ROUND IN THE friggin CHAMBER when the piece is LOADED. DUH.

forget it. these morons should just be quietly put to sleep so they won't endanger the rest of us any more. bury them head first in the desert.

practice. carry. glock rocks.

[mamelukesabre]

I've heard that glocks tend to fire when they are pulled from a kydex (sp?) holster.

YOu ever heard that?

[mamelukesabre]

Everything is less safe than a revolver.

[mamelukesabre]

What about a double action only revolver with a concealed hammer and a customized light trigger pull?

[Jonah Hex]

Nope, never heard that. I have a number of poly holsters (Fobus, Uncle Mike's, Sidearmor, Galco) and never had a problem with any of my Glock and non-Glock weapons.

A big problem with any weapon is reholstering. People snag the trigger on threads, twigs, keys, and fingers while reholstering with a resulting negligent discharge. I personally always take my sweet time reholstering any of my weapons, mechanical safety or not.

And don't get me going on the Glock clip! (Anybody who puts THAT on their Glock then stuffs it unholstered in their pants is begging for trouble.)

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

I never blew up a locker but I blew a guy's whole day.

A jackhole on my first ship decided he wanted to draw down on the ship across the way with his .45 when we were in he Med. (about a 500 yds away) while he was standing Petty Officer of the Watch.

I told him to cut it out and don't aim it at anything he wasn't ready to shoot.

His response was something along the lines of go up to the chain locker and committ acts of self defilement contrary to the sodomy clause in the UCMJ.

Not one to do those things I let my duty section leader (also my Chief) know what was going on.

It took all of 5 minutes for him to be relieved of the Petty Officer of the watch, assigned every other Messenger of the Watch shift for the next three duty days until he requalified for POoW.

We never hung out together much after that. There something about 3 watches a day that really bothers some people.

[Cap'n Crunch]

He would but they've been deemed "too intimidating" and none of us can wear them anymore.

The round only went through the piece of material that I believe they refer to as the wind block, strip behind the zipper, so when he zips up the coat you can't see it.

He thought it was cool.

[xsrdx]

From the Washington Post, 18 Nov 98:

D.C. police officials repeatedly studied the phenomenon of accidental discharges, invariably concluding that there was no fundamental problem with the Glock itself – as long as users were properly trained. Officials chose not to modify the Glock trigger, as New York City police did in 1990, to require a more forceful tug to fire the gun. In 1994, D.C. police recorded more accidental discharges than the Chicago or Los Angeles forces, two far bigger departments, according to discharge records from the departments. Last year, the accident rate for D.C. police was 50 percent greater than that of New York police.

This problem has been around awhile, it all comes down to proper training.

P. Kasler's book "Glock: The Revolution in Handguns" has some comments regarding the NYPD trigger modification also.

[xsrdx]

Link to full text of Washington Post article highlighting EXACTLY the same problem with DC Police and their new guns...

DC Glock Training Faulted

[xsrdx]

BUMP to the Bang List; Check the link at #179 for an in depth WashPost article (1998) regarding Glock training shortfalls in the DC Police force