The police are only minutes away.
And their guns won’t work when they arrive.
Seattle cops are being urged by their union to pack some extra heat.
More than 500 department-issued Glock semi-automatic handguns are getting so old, they need to be replaced, said Sgt. Rich O’Neill, president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild.
“We’ve had some real serious malfunctions at the range,” O’Neill said.
In some instances, the guns are literally falling apart when the officers shoot. One officer saw the slide on his gun flying down the range when he fired.
The department has assured the guild that there is a program in place to eventually replace all the aging guns, but the guild thought it still made sense to issue what it called an Officer Safety Alert.
The safety alert states, in part, “In light of the recent officer involved shootings and while the replacement procedure is in progress, officers are encouraged to carry an approved backup handgun while on duty.”
O’Neill himself said his Glock is from 1994, the year Seattle first switched from revolvers to semi-automatic handguns.
“We have guns out there that are 14, 15 years old,” he said. “They’re not like the old revolvers. They’ve got to be replaced.”
First, it seems as though Seattle Police Chief, Gil Kerlikowske, hates firearms so much that he hasn’t budgeted to keep his officers suitably equipped.
Secondly, as a former member of the Seattle Police Athletic Association and former frequent visitor to their rifle, pistol and shotgun ranges (I now live in Tacoma), I can attest to the rather infrequent training and low qualification req’s.
I can also attest to the positively high quality of work done by the SPD armorers.
And now we get to see the service life of the Glock: 14 years. Not bad, though I must say it certainly isn’t close to 70 years.
Game. Set. Match. 1911
(WordPress keeps eating the open HTML flamewar tag I’m trying to leave. Consider it open.)
is it too soon to start knocking the Glock?
Knock Glock with what? An overweight German pistol with such a bad ergonomic grip that every gunshop selling them advises you to buy Hogue slip-on grips and not fire a shot until they are installed?
A pistol that you have to remember to decock, because it is not considered safe to carry it cocked?
I carried a Glock (Gen 1) Model 17 for 16 years, shooting it frequently (probably 4-5,000 rounds through it, and had it examined by several Glock-trained armorers who then pronounced it fit for further service. It is currently in that further service and has been for several years, and gets regular workouts at the range.
To replace the Model 17, I bought first a Model 23, which I fired a couple thousand rounds out of, including demonstrating my prowess at several Blasto-ramas, then sold it and got a used San Antonio PD Gen One Model 22, which is in perfect mechanical shape.
Every time I hear of a “Glock Kaboom” incident, I try to get as much information on it as possible. In my efforts, I usually come up with an explanation which casts no bad light on Glock at all, but illustrates boneheadedness on the part of the pistol operator.
Could it be that the Union boss at SPD is an H&K or Sig-Sauer fanboy? Any bets?
When I was shopping for my sidearm, I test fired a Glock 19 & a 21, and I was not taken with either (bad fit, and for some reason they are loader than hell). What I really loved was the Sig P226 (such a sweet little shooter), but I did not have the almost $1000 needed to buy it.
I find my S&W M&P (.45 ACP) to be an excellent pistol for the price. Shoots well, care and feeding is easy, and I’ve only had one case of a round not feeding properly, and only twice did a shell not eject properly.
I dunno…
The part about the slide launching downrange when fired is kinda hitting my BS meter pretty hard.
Maybe launching forward when closing the slide, but I don’t see it happening when the slide is recoiling from the cartridge being fired…