For my birthday this year my father-in-law gave me “Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun” by Paul M. Barrett.  It is a very interesting book that looks at how the Glock came to be so popular in our country.  Barrett does a good job giving the background without making it so narrative that it loses your interest.

I had no idea that Glock started in America with a guy selling them out of an RV.  It started small and became huge when police started adopting the guns.  Glock also made headway by taking LE guns in on trade that gave departments huge savings.  What many people didn’t know is Glock was selling those used LE guns to the private sector.  Again this was fascinating.

Barrett does not paint a very good portrait of the inventor, Gaston Glock.  He is portrayed as an old playboy who became the dirty old man everyone makes fun of at family reunions.   Sometimes not ignorance is bliss when it comes to the people we admire.

One other fascinating thing was how they placed Glocks in all kinds of movies.  Everyone remembers Glocks from Die Hard 2.  In that movie they were undetectable in airports.  Glock ate up all the bad press as good press.

If you are a Glock guy this book will be fascinating.  I do warn you that some of the stories are not faltering towards the morality of the people associated with Glock including Mr. Glock.  I know you won’t be shocked by that anyway.  A quick read that is pretty cool.