Glock's Recent Bad Publicity
 

Seems like Glock is getting a whole crapload of bad publicity these days.

The media doesn't drop namebrands on most guns, but they know Glock. I guess it's because the media's overall firearm savvy is around the 70 IQ mark.

Or they listen to gangsta rap. "Pop-pop with my Glock Forty, bitches!"

Virginia Tech retard? Didn't hear much about the other guns... just the Glock. This recent dickhead out in the midwest? Didn't say the brand of the shotgun or other handgun, but they saw a Glock. Between CNN and Fox, I've heard "Glock" about two dozen times in the last hour. I wonder what the motivation is to use that over "handgun" or "pistol."

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While bad publicity is still publicity (and thus good from a "get our name out there" commercial standpoint), "infamous" guns usually may end up creating new piece-specific legislation or show up on special ban lists like the Intratec Tec-9 (big pistol), the Cobray Streetsweeper (DD), etc. I generally feel piece-specific laws are bullshit.

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The popularity and simplicity of the Glock make it a ubiquitous handgun. It's immensely popular with law enforcement in the US. Just about everybody I know who uses firearms has shot one at least once and many own 'em. Glock was the first company to mass produce polymer frame handguns. Damn fine pistols, really.

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What do you think about the brand name dropping the media uses with specific firearms?

I think they're trying to demonize the company. Sensationalize the product.

Media: "It's not just a handgun, it's a Glock... the preferred weapon of school shooters."

Yeah, I think that the generally uninformed morons who report the news may not even be aware that Glock is in fact a brand and not a type of gun. They probably think that the only type of guns that exist are six shooters, machine guns and Glocks. The popularity of Glock has created a situation where it is only one step from being the Kleenex of handguns.
This sort of name recognition nonsense is part of the reason why we can't legally own certain weapons here in MA--because the name SOUNDS scary. "OOOoo AK-47, like in Rambo!"

I think it's partly due to the familiarity most people have with the name. Most people couldn't name more than one or two handgun manufacturers, but they've all heard of Glock. It's like Ilow said, they've become a class of weapon in the minds of most people.

I think it's also an easy way for newscasters to appear like they know what they're talking about, at least in regard to an uninformed public.

Blame the movies. Go pick a generic action movie and you might notice the good guys carry Glocks and the bad guys carry Desert Eagles. Henchmen usually carry Uzis (sometimes mico-uzis) or AK-47's. And if there's a SWAT team, Ranger team or some similar good guy henchman equivalent, they almost always carry M4's or MP-5's.

Now me, if I was a movie villain, I'd carry something like a Sig P220. The .45 ACP may not be able to punch a hole through a baby elephant like the .50 AE does, but I'd have the massive advantage over the hero, who'd run right past me looking for the guy carrying the big ugly IMI piece.

But, y'know, I'm Canadian, so I don't know shit about guns. Probably better to ask someone else.

Hahah, brilliant! Turns out you got it right, bro. I love movie gun stereotypes. :cool:

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Why? Do you want to buy a P220? Turns out I may have one for sale...

I don't think the Desert Eagle is ugly. It's just big and misused.

My favorite movie mis information was in one of the Die Hard's where John McClain says:

"They have ceramic guns that won't even set off your metal detectors"

in reference to a Glock.

Whether or not the Desert Eagle is ugly is a matter of taste, I guess. Personally, I'd rather have something from FN or Beretta. I mostly appreciate guns from the engineering perspective; the 5.7mm cartridge FN was producing gave me a woody until I found out that it's actually not very effective. I'd never actually use a P90 (I don't trust that 90 degree magazine rotation gadgetry), but the pistol they built around the 5.7 looked fun. Small, light and high capacity. If only the round hadn't sucked.

I almost typed that I don't want to buy a P220. The truth is that I do want to buy a P220, but I don't want it badly enough to jump through all the necessary hoops. I don't even think there are any ranges closer to me than the city, which is an hour and a half away on a good day.

Anyway, that's why Glocks are famous. It's the same reason every 9 year old boy can identify an Uzi on sight but wouldn't recognize a Tec-9 no matter how hard you beat them with it. Movies like flashy guns. Glocks are flashy.

Note that it's almost always a Glock 17 too, although the 18's with the extended mags are gaining ground. Laurence Fishburne doing his kung fu shit on the freeway with one in whichever Matrix movie that was probably has something to do with that.

It appears the media is at it again. Apparently the NIU shooter bought some clips from Topglock.com, which happens to be a favorite site of mine. Now everyone is in an uproar over how he was able to buy gun accessories online, even though he had no criminal background.

Here is an article from the Green Bay Press on the issue:
Green Bay gun dealer sold supplies to NIU shooter

If you're looking for an amusing/scary discussion on the subject check out the Fark.com comments on the article.
Website owner who sold gun accessories to Cho Seung-Hui did the same for NIU shooter. Alek Hidell unavailable for comment

It's sad that the owner of the site has to defend himself when the shooter could've easily purchased the same thing anywhere else with the same effect.

And jams every five or six shots.
I guess there are some downsides to being highly ranked in Google business ratings.

Funny, I've had my Israeli XIX since, oh, 2003 and it hasn't jammed once. Must be operator error.

It's a big gas operated target pistol.

I think they're the exact opposite of flashy, but I agree with Ilow... they're a pop culture brand name product genre icon... up there with Kleenex.

Yeah, blargh. I'm waiting for the media to catch onto sites like www.Gunbroker.com and demonize them as the "E-bay of Assault Weapons!" :rolleyes:

I can definitely see limp-wristing being a major problem, but in the older models, I've always heard that the problem was the big cartridge hitting the feed ramp at an awkward angle and causing a type 1 malfunction.

Perhaps flashy is the wrong word. Distinctive might be a better one. To the uninitiated, a 1911 looks the same as a Beretta 92 looks the same as a <insert random handgun here>. Glocks are black and square and no other gun really looks like them. Desert Eagles have that big trapezoidal shape, and are frickin' huge. These are guns that can be used as a character trademark because they're easily recognized even by people who know virtually nothing about firearms. They can also be used as short-hand. Your movie takes place in the not-to-distant future? Use P90's! They're futuristic! Wild west, sixguns are the rule. WWII, all the Germans should have Lugers (even the ones who historically speaking shouldn't). And so, and so.

http://www.calzaretta.com/scans/sigma-40ti.jpg
http://world.guns.ru/handguns/hs-xd-3.jpg
http://www.shootingtimes.com/newprod...06_022106R.jpg
http://www.kimberamerica.com/images/...pd/kpd_kpd.jpg
http://www.impactguns.com/store/medi...hr_PM9094A.jpg

:p

I know MSG replied to this, but I just wanted to say that my brother recently bought a S&W .40 SW40GVE. We were both cleaning our pistols after shooting at the range, and the internals are so similar to my Glock that you could almost switch parts around.

STOP IT! He's Canadian.

Also it used to be, prior to 1989 anyway, you'd never hear the term "semi-automatic" used to describe a firearm in a news article. Only after the Patrick Purdey incident in Stockton, CA did the media jump on the bandwagon. Now all you hear is semi-automatic this or semi-automatic that...

MSG? You got sports on the brain or are you saying I add flavor to the discussion?

Hahah, or maybe you're a non-company E8 in the US Army...

Haha, sorry about that. I use Dvorak for my keyboard layout, so G and D are right next to each other.

Although I was looking at Asian recipes earlier...

Name recognition. Everyone knows Glock, so media will use it to sell a story. It's like the difference between saying "an actor fell off a cliff" and "Chuck Norris fell off a cliff"; more people will gravitate to the specificity of it. And there's no point in saying "the shooter was carring a Taurus", for example, because not enough of the unwashed masses know what that is.