Glock (German: [ˈglɔk]; stylized as GLOCK) is a brand of polymer-framed, short-recoil-operated, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H.. The firearm, designed by company founder Gaston Glock (1929–2023), entered Austrian military and police service in 1982 as the P80 (later known commercially as the Glock 17) after outperforming established competitors in reliability and safety tests. Despite initial market resistance to its "plastic" construction, the Glock became the first commercially successful line of pistols with a polymer frame.
The weapon utilizes the company's proprietary "Safe Action" system, which consists of three internal independent safety mechanisms: the trigger safety, firing pin safety, and drop safety. These mechanisms prevent accidental discharge without the use of an external on-off switch. The pistols are also noted for their high magazine capacity relative to their weight and their resistance to corrosion, originally achieved through a ferritic nitrocarburizing surface treatment known as Tenifer.
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