Glock: The Rise of America's Gun

240 Pages·2012·1.27 MB·English

by  Paul M. Barrett

Copyright © 2012 by Paul M. Barrett
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a
division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
CROWN and the Crown colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Barrett, Paul (Paul M.)
Glock : the rise of America’s gun / Paul M. Barrett.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Glock Gesellschaft—History. 2. Glock pistols—Hisotry. 3. Firearms and crime—United States—
History. 4. Firearms—United States—Use in crime prevention—History. I. Title.
HD9744.P584G563 2012
338.7′683432509436—dc23 2011024141
eISBN: 978-0-30771994-2
Illustration by John Burgoyne
Jacket design by Whitney G. Cookman
Jacket photography © Mike Kemp/Rubberball/Getty Images
v3.1
For Julie
Gaston Glock
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Diagram
CHAPTER 1
SHOOTOUT IN MIAMI
CHAPTER 2
“PISTOL OF THE FUTURE”
CHAPTER 3
“ONE UGLY AND ALL-BUSINESS-LOOKING PIECE OF SELF-DEFENSE
HARDWARE”
CHAPTER 4
“PLASTIC PERFECTION”
CHAPTER 5
“HIJACKER’S SPECIAL”
CHAPTER 6
“SUPER GUN”
CHAPTER 7
GOING HOLLYWOOD
CHAPTER 8
THE MARK OF CAIN
CHAPTER 9
“COPY THE MOTHERFUCKER”
CHAPTER 10
MASSACRE IN KILLEEN
CHAPTER 11
LAWYERS, GUNS, AND MONEY
CHAPTER 12
“KA-BOOM”
CHAPTER 13
POCKET ROCKETS
CHAPTER 14
“MY WAY”
CHAPTER 15
GLOCK CULTURE
CHAPTER 16
GLOCK GOES TO THE WHITE HOUSE
CHAPTER 17
AN ASSASSIN’S ATTACK
CHAPTER 18
“MONOPOLY MONEY”
CHAPTER 19
THE IMPACT OF THE AUSTRIAN PISTOL: GOOD FOR AMERICA?
CHAPTER 20
EPILOGUE
Acknowledgments
Selected Bibliography
Source Notes
About the Author

CHAPTER 1
Shootout in Miami
t was nine forty-five a.m. on April 11, 1986, when Special Agents
I
Benjamin Grogan and Gerald Dove spotted the two suspects driving a
stolen black Chevrolet Monte Carlo on South Dixie Highway. The pair
had been robbing banks and armored trucks in southern Dade County
over the past four months. To catch them, Gordon McNeill, a supervisory
special agent with the Miami field office of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, had set up a rolling stakeout. “They had killed two people;
another woman was missing,” McNeill said. “They had shot another guy
four times. In my twenty-one years with the agency, I never felt more
sure that when we found these guys, they would go down hard.”
Moments later, other FBI units converged; soon, three unmarked
sedans trailed the bank robbers. McNeill, closing from the opposite
direction, spotted the black Monte Carlo at the head of the strange
convoy. In the passenger seat, one suspect shoved a twenty-round
magazine into a Ruger Mini-14 semiautomatic rifle. “Felony car stop!”
McNeill shouted into his radio to the other units. “Let’s do it!”
FBI vehicles corralled the Monte Carlo, ramming the fugitive
automobile and forcing it into a large driveway. The three remaining
government sedans skidded into surrounding positions. Two more FBI
cars arrived across the street. In all, eight agents faced the two suspects.
Suddenly, one of the fugitives started shooting. FBI men scrambled for
cover and returned fire. The occupants of the Monte Carlo seemed to be
hit in the fusillade, but the government rounds weren’t stopping them.
In the chaos, the federal agents struggled to reload their revolvers,
jamming cartridges one after another into five-and six-shot Smith &
Wessons. Three of the FBI agents were members of a special-tactics
squad and carried fifteen-round S&W pistols. But none of the handgun
fire seemed to slow the criminals. The gunman with the Ruger Mini-14
merely had to snap a new magazine into his rifle to have another twenty