If you are known to your group of friends as the “Gun Guy, or Gal” I am willing to bet there are two questions you come across from time to time

What type of gun should I buy?
And why should I buy that gun?

I like to preface my answer with, well just about everyone makes a good gun these days, there are many reputable manufactures making fantastic firearms. From Springfield Armory, to Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Sig Sauer, Kahr Arms, FN, and if you got slightly deeper pockets HK. That’s just to name a few.

I like to avoid just spoon-feeding people answers on what they should buy, I’d prefer them to shop their options, see what catches their eye, and offer my honest opinion when asked about certain makes and models.

With all of that being said there are those who prefer to just be pointed in the right direction. No need to bounce around from gun maker to gun maker. What do you trust your life with? To those my answer has been the same for years.

Glock

Specifically Glock 9mm

Further specifically Glock 19

Then comes the follow-up. Why Glock? I have five reasons why I trust my life to Glock, five reasons that give Glock the edge when compared to modern defensive firearms.

– Simple

No extra buttons, no levers, nothing requiring fine motor skills. When adrenaline enters our blood stream we tend to get tunnel vision, we forget to breath, and we lose fine motor skills. Hand-Eye coordination go out the door and manual dexterity is lost in our fingers. When these things happen fidgeting with buttons and levers could cost you the ultimate price.

With Glock its as simple as point and press the trigger. With no controls other than the slide stop, trigger, and magazine release. It’s simplistic design makes it the optimal defensive weapon regardless of your level of training.

The simplicity is not only in the operation. It emulates its way through the list of all 35 parts (including the front and rear sight and 5 parts in the magazine) all held together by 3 pins.
The less parts present, the less parts that can break.

Fighting for you life is complicated, the tool you use to fight shouldn’t be.

 

– Safe

But, But, But… Glocks don’t have safeties! It’s difficult not to hang my head aND sigh when I hear this statement. While yes, the do not have a manually operated safety, the Glock safe action trigger system houses three different passive safeties. All of which are disengaged by pressing the trigger to the rear.

The trigger safety is a bar incorporated into the center of the trigger face. This small lever prohibits the pistol from firing. It’s positioned to block the trigger from moving reward until both the trigger and trigger safety are depressed simultaneously.

The firing pin safety is a small, spring-loaded piece of metal placed in the firing pin channel mechanically blocking the firing pin from moving forward. When the trigger moves reward a vertical extension on the trigger bar makes contact with the bottom of the firing pin safety. Pushing up on it and moving it out of the path of the firing pin, allowing the firing pin to make contact with the primer of the chambered round.

The drop safety is a cruciform shape attached to the rear of the trigger bar. It sits on a shelf position directly in line with the firing pin lug. As the trigger moves rearward it forces the spring-loaded firing pin assembly rearward and once it reaches its fully retracted position the drop safety drops into a cut out, making way for the firing pin assembly to move forward.

As with everything, training is key. If you start off with a Glock and train yourself to be safe with this weapon platform all other platforms will fall in line. If you dedicate yourself to trigger discipline obeying the 4 rules of firearm safety, paying special attention to rule number three.

DO NOT TOUCH THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON TARGET AND YOU HAVE MADE THE DECISION TO SHOOT!

A podcast I listened to years ago titled the handgun podcast put it as simply as can be. If you don’t want the gun to go BANG! Keep your booger hook off the bang switch.

 

– Reliable / Durable

These two really go Hand in Hand. Other than a revolver you really can’t beat the out of the box reliability of the Glock. No break in period, never seen on finicky about what ammo you use. For crying out loud it comes from the factory lubricated and range ready.

Does that mean they will never have a malfunction? No. From time to time I’ve heard of it happening. It happens more commonly with people who swap out the barrel, recoil spring, or trigger assembly parts with parts from third-party suppliers.

As I am writing this I have 21 different Glocks in my collection. I have a Gen 3 Glock 17 that I have never cleaned The round count is somewhere in the 5-7 thousand range, not a single malfunction. I have a Gen 2 Glock 19 that looks like it’s been to hell and back, 28 years old and still runs like new. I personally have never had a malfunction with a Glock.

During an outing last year I lent my threaded barrel Glock 19 with a RMR mounted on the slide to a handful of new shooters to try out. After running about 200 rounds of steel cased wolf FMJ we had a handful of failures. Gun failed to go completely into battery. I believe these to be attributed to the aftermarket barrel in combination with crappy steel cased ammo.

Now onto the durability, I’ve been an Armorer for 5 years now. If you don’t know what that means. It means I am certified by Glock to repair guns that NEVER BREAK! I mainly tune triggers, install sights, and extended controls. In my 5 years of being certified I have had one single repair.

A friend was having trouble with his trigger resetting after being fired. After disassembling his gun I found he had replaced a few pieces in the trigger assembly with after market third-party parts. I replaced them with factory competition parts and it was back to normal.

The durability level on the Glock makes torture tests boring. From being drug behind a truck down a gravel road. Submerged in salt water for a week. Buried in mud, dropped from a helicopter, and frozen in a block of ice and then beaten with a sledge-hammer till free from ice. They truly are unstoppable. Iraqveteran8888 on You Tube recently did a full auto torture test. The gun became so hot the frame of the gun began to melt… But it still kept running.

I tell this story so often I can hear my wife groan as she mutters not the screw driver story again.

My first time in armorers school. The instructor picks up a Glock 19 off the table in front of him. Glock in one hand flat head screw driver in the other and he begins to violently scrape the slide of the gun intentionally trying to remove the finish. The room fell silent, the look of horror filled everyone’s face as he held up the gun we all held dearly in our heart. Showing bright silver scratches covering the right side of the slide. He then grabbed a rag, and wiped off the scratches? With a smirk he said proudly “that was the finish coming off the screw driver, not the finish coming off the slide.”

Anyone that knows anything at all about guns will not argue with the reliability and durability of the Glock Platform. Saying a Glock is reliable is just like saying Hillary Clinton is a treasonous criminal. Some may disagree but they have no proof to back it up.

 

– Mags

This reason might not seem like a big deal to some, but to me it’s a game changer. Glock mags are cheap, super reliable, and the are EVERYWHERE! Base plates, extensions, factory mags, and aftermarket mags can be found in any firearm retailer in the country, possibly in the world.

The capacity options are insane. In the 9mm platform you can have anywhere from a 10 round mag to a 33 round mag. With a whole host of numbers in between. 10/12/15/17/22/26/33 these are just some of the capacity options for the double stack 9mm Glock.

The beauty of it all is if the mag is long enough to fit in the grip of your gun, then it will work in your gun.

Here’s the kicker, not only will 9mm Glock mags work in 9mm Glocks. They will also work in an ever growing list of Carbines and SBR’s. Manufacturers like Angstadt Arms, Quarter Circle 10, Kel Tech’s sub 2000, and the Kriss Vector all run 9mm Glock Mags just to name a few.

I Personally carry my Glock 19 with a standard 15 round mag in the gun, 1 round in the chamber making a total of 16. I also carry 2 17 round mags opposite of my gun on my left side adding 34 rounds to the 16 in the gun. Giving me a grand total of 50 rounds on my person. But… Being the over-doer that I am I also carry 3 33 round mags in my tactical man purse. Leaving me just shy of 150 rounds on a daily basis.

Glock mags are plentiful and reasonably priced. If you own a Glock buy a few mags here and there. Stash them around your house, in your car, In your purse or briefcase. Remember no one ever came out of a gun fight wishing they had less ammo.

 

– Commonality

Okay, this one undoubtably has a few people scratching their head. You mean to tell me I should buy a Glock because other people buy Glocks? The simple answer to that is yes, yes you should buy one just because everyone else has.

The Glock 19 is arguably the most popular handgun in the world. Countless military, law enforcement, and government agencies world-wide take on the darkness of our societies with a Glock on their hip.

But that really isn’t what makes the commonality of the Glock important. With the American firearm market so heavily saturated with Glock 17/19/26 pistols, it’s influence throughout the industry is undeniable.

Any holster, mag carrier, weapon light, sighting system, threaded or ported barrel are all produced for the Glock 9mm platform before any other manufacturer. Any aftermarket option that can be added to a modern-day fighting side arm is available for the Glock

I challenge you to find any holster manufacture that doesn’t produce a whole slue of options for the Glock 19.

The commonality factor can also flow into your group of friends. I’m fortunate enough to have an awesome group of friends, all very pro gun, we shoot together, we train together, and we all carry Glock 19’s.

Going out to diner or a movie with a 5 person team all armed the same, trained, and close as family magnifies your confidence in being able to handle any defensive situation you
may come across. This is a very Important reason why law enforcement agencies carry the same platform and caliber. God forbid if you find yourself at ground zero when the shots ring out having more than one person sharing the same weapon system and mags could mean the difference between life and death.

The Glock 19 is small enough to hide yet large enough to fight with. Simple enough to operate under stress. Safe in all situations. The standard of reliability, with enough capacity to give you the edge in any environment.

Oh and all the cool kids carry one…

These are my reasons for what I carry.
What are yours?

Staysuspicious.