28 May 15

“Friends” Like These:

I’ve been, and continue to be, involved as an expert assistant in a number of product-liability lawsuits, many involving Glock pistols.

During the course of such litigation, I’ve been treated (so long as my gag-reflex holds out) to sham arguments by sleazy plaintiff’s attorneys. They typically say,

“If only Glock pistols had manual safety levers, if only Glock trigger strokes were longer, my client would not have been injured… ad nauseam”

Never a word, of course, about the pistol being carelessly pointed in unsafe directions, nor fingers being in contact with triggers at inappropriate times, nor other blatant safety violations.

We may expect this kind of nescient rubbish from the mouths of the willfully ignorant, anti-gun crowd. When it come from the mouth of one who purports to be a Second-Amendment supporter, it makes me openly question whose side he is really on!

In an editorial appearing in the 19 May 15 issue of the LA Times, Mr Bob Owens, describes Glock pistols as “a danger to us all!” Mr Owens is editor of a blog, bearingarms.com, which is generally pro-gun.

Citing several antidotal shooting accidents, Owens decries Glock’s lack of a manual safety and “short” trigger-stroke, saying,

“The underlying problem with these (Glock) pistols is a short trigger-pull and the lack of an external safety”

“Though short trigger-pull guns dominate the law-enforcement market, they aren’t the only game in town. A number of major and minor agencies use guns with much longer double-action triggers that are just as easy to fire deliberately but are much harder to fire accidentally.”

Of course, he fails to name any of these non-Glock-using agencies!

In addition, he fails to name a single pistol that would live up to his “standards”

In the end, he simply says,

“Let’s arm our police with firearms that go off only when the officers mean to fire them”

Again, he never gets specific. We curiously never get to know exactly what gun(s) he’s talking about!

I suspect Mr Owens doesn’t even carry a gun!

I notice in his blog, he has subsequently admitted,

“Sadly, the truly incompetent bottom-performers will still have issues, regardless of the platform used.”

Okay! There is apparently no pistol those people should have!

This is yet another example of the weary, “You’re too stupid to own a gun” contention.

The entire industry devoted to the manufacture of serious pistols is currently making guns that work, from the user standpoint, just like Glocks, like the SIG P320, H&K P9, Walther PPQ, FNC, S&W M&P, Kahr, SA/XD, Beretta APX! Right now, when you want to sell serious duty pistols they need to be (1) polymer-framed, (2) striker-fired, (3) with no manual safety lever or button, and (4) no manual decocking lever. Nearly all have “short” triggers, at least by Mr Owen’s standards. Some do have manual safeties, or offer them as an option, but the vast majority don’t!

Most all old, DA/SA pistols, which he apparently likes, are now long-since out of production. The few still in production sit on the poorly-lighted, bottom rung of store shelves, gathering dust!

Who say police should be banned from using modern arms make me angry! When Glocks, and all the other pistols named above, are “too dangerous” for police, well, they must be too dangerous for anyone!

And, we’re right back in the courtroom, and the newspaper editorial office, learning that we’re apparently all too stupid to own any kind of gun!

Once again, with “friends like these,” we don’t need enemies!

/John