This is an older interview, but related to the gun control debate now. Technically speaking Glock is an excellent firearm vs. its early peers, but its marketing was leaps and bounds ahead:
- They fed on the negative press that Glocks were the weapon of choice of terrorists and bad people (if those hardened killers choose Glock, maybe I should too!).
- They made overtures to Hollywood armories to make sure Glocks got exposure in big time TV/movies like "Law and Order" (and unintentionally in many rap songs).
- Around the time the Glock was invented, cops were using old S&W revolvers and the military was using heavy Colt 1911-like automatics. The Glock was futuristic looking, with a sensitive trigger, made of plastic, and with no external safety. People were skeptical about using it. The genius of the Glock is that it is super-reliable, super-simple design, and made in a very efficient manufacturing process. Their original idea was to leverage that cost advantage to sell cheap and undercut rivals. But then they decided on a premium price, in order to signal to customers that it wasn't a flimsy plastic toy gun - it was in fact a premium, high-performance, superior gun. Though for hesitant police departments, Glock basically had a "name your price" + trade-in policy (subsidized by superior margins to the public). Cops were also motivated to get Glocks because they were tired of being outgunned by criminals with them. So this strategy got them impressive market share, and got the gun double exposure from the "good guy" cops and the "bad guy" crooks.
Here's the gun control side of the story. Glocks were made to accommodate a variety of magazines, some as high as 30 rounds. The gun control community were very opposed to Glocks, and looked foolish after they claimed that the plastic gun would get through airport security (half of the gun is still metal, and its outline would be obvious in an X-ray). But they got momentum after the Killeen, TX mass shooting (the worst in US history at the time) where the perpetrator used a Glock and other firearms. So capping magazine capacity was part of the assault weapons ban, though not retroactive (i.e. existing guns would be grandfathered). Legislation is slow and Glock anticipated this change, so for years prior their plants were pumping out a ton of Glocks and large mags. They sold like hotcakes leading up to the ban, in some cases at 3X higher prices than before Killeen. I guess like the AR-15 now.
Glock was also the punching bag for many police departments, despite being their supplier. They employed a controversial practice of "trading in". In order to drive more sales, Glock reps would reach out to PDs and offer to buy their old guns in exchange for new, better Glocks (sometime every 1-2 years). PDs agreed, and then Glock would sell those used guns on the secondary market. Of course some of those guns got in the hands of criminals. Cops were blaming (and even suing) Glock for "flooding the streets" with guns, but where did those guns come from - the holsters of cops! If PDs resisted the urge to get the latest-and-greatest guns (subsidized by their current guns), then the problem could have been much reduced. They could have mandated that Glock melt down their old guns and sell them as scrap instead.
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