Glock The Rise of America's Gun

by BARRETT, PAUL M.

• ISBN13: 9780307719959
• ISBN10: 0307719952
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-01-15
• Publisher: Crown

Summary

Based on fifteen years of research, Glockis the riveting story of the weapon that has become known as American's gun. Today the Glock pistol has been embraced by two-thirds of all U.S. police departments, glamorized in countless Hollywood movies, and featured as a ubiquitous presence on prime-time TV. It has been rhapsodized by hip-hop artists, and coveted by cops and crooks alike. Created in 1982 by Gaston Glock, an obscure Austrian curtain-rod manufacturer, and swiftly adopted by the Austrian army, the Glock pistol, with its lightweight plastic frame and large-capacity spring-action magazine, arrived in America at a fortuitous time. Law enforcement agencies had concluded that their agents and officers, armed with standard six-round revolvers, were getting "outgunned" by drug dealers with semi-automatic pistols. They needed a new gun. When Karl Water, a firearm salesman based in the U.S. first saw a Glock in 1984, his reaction was, "Jeez, that's ugly." But the advantages of the pistol soon became apparent. The standard semi-automatic Glock could fire as many as 17 bullets from its magazine without reloading (one equipped with an extended thirty-three cartridge magazine was used in Tucson to shoot Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others). It was built with only 36 parts that were interchangeable with those of other models. You could drop it underwater, toss it from a helicopter, or leave it out in the snow, and it would still fire. It was reliable, accurate, lightweight, and cheaper to produce than Smith and Wesson's revolver. Made in part of hardened plastic, it was even rumored (incorrectly) to be invisible to airport security screening. Filled with corporate intrigue, political maneuvering, Hollywood glitz, bloody shoot-outs-and an attempt on Gaston Glock's life by a former lieutenant- Glockis at once the inside account of how Glock the company went about marketing its pistol to police agencies and later the public, as well as a compelling chronicle of the evolution of gun culture in America.

Author Biography

PAUL M. BARRETT is an assistant managing editor of Bloomberg Businessweek. He is the author of American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion and The Good Black: A True Story of Race in America. Barrett lives and works in New York City. For more information, go to GlockTheBook.com.

Table of Contents

Contents 
CHAPTER 1
SHOOTOUT IN MIAMI
1
 
CHAPTER 2
“PISTOL OF THE FUTURE”
6
 
CHAPTER 3
“ONE UGLY AND ALL- BUSINESS- LOOKING PIECE OF
SELF- DEFENSE HARDWARE”
20
 
CHAPTER 4
“PLASTIC PERFECTION”
25
 
CHAPTER 5
“HIJACKER’S SPECIAL”
33
 
CHAPTER 6
“SUPER GUN”
51
 
CHAPTER 7
GOING HOLLYWOOD
68
 
CHAPTER 8
THE MARK OF CAIN
84
 
CHAPTER 9
“COPY THE MOTHERFUCKER”
92
 
CHAPTER 10
MASSACRE IN K ILLEEN
106
 
CHAPTER 11
LAWYERS, GUNS, AND MONEY
116
 
CHAPTER 12
“KA- BOOM”
130
 
CHAPTER 13
POCKET ROCKETS
149
 
CHAPTER 14
“MY WAY”
161
 
CHAPTER 15
GLOCK CULTURE
181
 
CHAPTER 16
GLOCK GOES TO THE WHITE HOUSE
194
 
CHAPTER 17
AN ASSASSIN’S ATTACK
213
 
CHAPTER 18
“MONOPOLY MONEY”
223
 
CHAPTER 19
THE IMPACT OF THE AUSTRIAN PISTOL:
GOOD FOR AMERICA?
240
 
EPILOGUE
262
 
AFTERWORD
269
 
Acknowledgments
277
Selected Bibliography
279
Source Notes
281
Index
289