[archy]

Glocks have their problems, but the lack of a manual safety isn't one of them. I've owned two model 17s, a 19, a 21 and a 30 over the last 15 years since their introduction, and have yet to have one go bang when I didn't want it to...nor did I have any similar problem with the .45 M1911 pistols I've used since 1960, nor the Browning GP *Hi-power* 9mm pistols I've owned and carried since 1967.

I am aware of at least two people with S&W autopistols killed when the magazine release of their handguns was inadvertantly bumped or depressed when hurriedly grabbed, and the magazine safety functioned exactly as designed, leaving them with a nonfunctioning handgun while an adversary killed them. That's not to say that I wasn't fond of the sweet little S&W M39 autoloader I carried as an armored car courier/driver and gun guard...after the magazine safety was disconnected.

But I'm much more displeased with other cgharacteristics of the Glocks, including their rifling profile unsuitable for unjacketed lead bullets, their unsuitability with reloaded training ammunition, an unfortunate tendency of some models to fire before the breech is fully locked up, and the *phase three* malfunction in which a glock will sometimes try to rechamber a fired case before it's fully ejected from the weapon, usually jamming the action pretty good.

I've still got a Model 17, the original version first introduced by Gaston Glock, and as used by the Austrian, Norwegian and Israeli military. But I'm under no illusions that it's perfect or *absolutely* reliable, any more than any other bit of machinery can be. It'll do, if I do my part.

FReep thread on Glock *phase three* stoppages *here*.

-archy-/-