The GLOCK 18 has a slide mounted selector - it's not a safety, it selects between semi- and full-auto operation. The ammo is a sample of what was fired that day.

The first GLOCK pistol was the GLOCK 17, a design by Gaston Glock. It's the one that won acceptance by the Austrian Army. But what about the next GLOCK pistol in the line-up? How much do you know about it? It's low-profile firepower smaller than a conventional submachine gun. Understanding that most handguns can't sustain automatic firing for any length of time, you might wonder about one that does -- the GLOCK 18. The G18 is a GLOCK 17 that looks only a little different. It looks like a GLOCK 17 with a selector on the left side of the slide, cut-outs atop the slide and a specially ported barrel. That's not a slide-mounted safety lever on the G18. Originally designed for airport anti-terrorist operations overseas, the GLOCK 18 was designed to give full-auto fire capability in the hands of agents who could only be armed with handguns. It's a lot more calming to see uniform police with holstered handguns than select fire long guns, even if they are submachine guns. The G18 is available with ported barrels and slides. The barrel ports are forward facing, pushing the muzzle down during a string of 1200 rounds per minute firing. There are four ports - the two front ports are larger than the last two. These appear through the cutout in the slide's top - the cutout is wider at front than the rear, allowing a larger space through which the largest ports expel gas. The rear of the slide forward of the rear sight is also cut out. GLOCK explained that the weight reduction in the rear of the slide affects "harmonic balance." Without trying to explain lots of things over which I have minimal grasp, suffice to say that the speed of the slide is affected. The result is that the gun has reliable full auto operation. Since we have a handgun operating at a cyclic rate of between 1200 and 1400 rounds a minute, reliability is something that had to be hard to achieve. Just trying to make a conventional GLOCK pistol into a buzz gun is bound to end in failure. It doesn't have what the real auto-GLOCK has. Besides, the conversion is a time waster and totally illegal. The GLOCK 18 has frame rails longer than rails on the conventional GLOCK handguns. They're also higher. More bearing surface gives better control of a faster moving slide. Markings in front of the selector switch are one dot on top and two on the bottom. The single dot (".") at the top means conventional, semi-auto operation. This is the position that the switch needs to be in when the gun is being handled at all times unless it's actually employed as a "machine pistol." When you elect to shoot it like a "machine pistol," pull the slide-mounted switch down to the ".." position. The two dots on the slide don't mean that the gun has a two-shot burst option! It means that the gun will continue to fire as long as there is pressure on the trigger and there is ammo to feed. The G18C is shipped like any law enforcement GLOCK is, with three full-capacity (17-round) magazines.

Caught at full recoil, that is six empties in the air all at once - a quick buzz gun.

The G18C is only available for agency purchase. Individual police officers cannot buy one. Nor can they afford to feed it! The GLOCK 18C was demonstrated at a law enforcement firing range during a training day. Officers mostly found that they could churn out 5 round bursts with some control if they leaned aggressively into the gun. One possibility that was mentioned was issue to the "shield guy" on the response team. The poor guy that's got to lug that heavy ballistic shield - portable cover - as the team moves through on a hostage rescue or other entry - can't use a long gun. The G18C we were using had just consumed 10,000 rounds of ammo at a demonstration a few days before our group shot it. That was followed up with another 8,000 rounds the day before we shot it. As local law enforcement, our use was tightly constrained due to time and ammo - we only put 500 rounds through the gun in a few moments! With all the use, the G18C was working fine. There were no stoppages, no problems during our shooting of the fine little sub-gun. A GLOCK 18 Operators' School is available to agencies that purchase the G18. It's an 8-hour course and requires about 1,000 rounds to complete. It is listed at GLOCK Training. -- Rich Grassi