| Description: The Glock pistols are a series of semi-automatic hand guns designed and produced by Glock Ges.m.b.H., located in Deutsch-Wagram, Austria. The company's founder, engineer Gaston Glock, had no experience with firearm design or manufacture at the time their first pistol, the Glock 17, was being prototyped. Glock did have extensive experience in advanced synthetic polymers, knowledge of which was instrumental in the company's design of the first successful line of pistols with a polymer frame. Despite initial resistance from the market to accept a "plastic gun" due to durability and reliability concerns, Glock pistols have become the company's most profitable line of products, commanding 65% of the market share of handguns for United States law enforcement agencies as well as supplying numerous national armed forces, security agencies, and law enforcement agencies in 48 countries.
The Glock handgun was adopted into service with the Austrian military and police forces in 1982 as the P80 (Pistole 80), with an initial order for 25,000 guns. The Glock 17 outperformed eight different pistols from five other established manufacturers… Heckler & Koch offered their P7M8, P7M13 and P9S, SIG-Sauer of Switzerland bid with their P220 and P226 models, Beretta of Italy submitted their model 92SB-F, FN Herstal proposed an updated variant of the Browning Hi-Power, and the home-grown Steyr entered the competition with the GB).
The 9mm Glock 17 was the first of the Glock pistols. Even though it holds 17 rounds that is not the reason for its name. Glock names their guns by the patent or product production number. The Glock 17 was the 17th product that Glock produced, the Glock 18 (a full-auto version of the 17) was their 18th product, the Glock 19 was Glocks 19th product and so on.
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