They do have a safety. It’s a trigger safety, not a thumb safety. This means that you have to have your finger in the trigger and pull it for the gun to go off. If the trigger snags on clothes or the gun is dropped or whatever, the gun will not go off.
The glock is a striker-fired gun. That means the trigger pull to fire will always be the same. There is no double VS single action, which is probably what you’re thinking about when you say “light squeeze to fire” as a double action gun like a Beretta 92FS will have a noticeably shorter and much easier pull if it’s cocked VS uncocked. There is no “partially pulled back” with a glock. You always pull the trigger the same amount with the same force to fire. You cannot “decock” a glock.
Now how much force does it require? That is up to the trigger spring. Some jurisdictions like NY force glocks to have a really heavy trigger pull but as far as I am aware there is no data supporting that it makes them any safer.
I will say if I had to criticize the glock, it is that you need to pull the trigger to disassemble the weapon. Of course you should only be trying to disassemble it after you’ve cleared any rounds from the chamber but it is one minor flaw with the design and one reason why the glock wasn’t eligible to become the US Army’s sidearm.
The NY Glock trigger is, IIRC, for NYPD, so that cops aren’t “accidentally” shooting unarmed people. Because clearly it was an accident that they shoot unarmed people multiple times…
It’s been a while since I read the book on Glock history, but my memory is that before Glocks many police departments used double action revolvers (S&W 29s for a common example). This lead to police habitually resting their fingers on the triggers. Bad habit, but they got away with it because of the ultra heavy triggers.
When departments switched to Glocks there were a rash of negligent discharges as police kept putting their fingers on the much lighter trigger. One incident in particular where a cop shot a suspect because of this. Despite it being a training issue, many departments became wary of Glocks, so adjustments like the NYPD trigger were born as a way to placate the issue.
Well, you’re definitely correct about many PDs using revolvers before switching to Glocks. That goes back to the Miami shootout with the FBI; FBI agents were still using revolvers at the time, and they were significantly outgunned b/c one of the suspects was armed with a Ruger Mini-14 rifle. As a result, the FBI started looking for a better sidearm, and the initially settled on 10mm before adopting the .40S&W. Glock managed to bring a .40S&W pistol to market before Smith & Wesson did (!!!), and then charged below cost for PDs in order to convince them to adopt the then-new firearm.
Now how much force does it require? That is up to the trigger spring. Some jurisdictions like NY force glocks to have a really heavy trigger pull but as far as I am aware there is no data supporting that it makes them any safer. I will say if I had to criticize the glock, it is that you need to pull the trigger to disassemble the weapon. Of course you should only be trying to disassemble it after you’ve cleared any rounds from the chamber but it is one minor flaw with the design and one reason why the glock wasn’t eligible to become the US Army’s sidearm.
The NY Glock trigger is, IIRC, for NYPD, so that cops aren’t “accidentally” shooting unarmed people. Because clearly it was an accident that they shoot unarmed people multiple times…
It’s been a while since I read the book on Glock history, but my memory is that before Glocks many police departments used double action revolvers (S&W 29s for a common example). This lead to police habitually resting their fingers on the triggers. Bad habit, but they got away with it because of the ultra heavy triggers.
When departments switched to Glocks there were a rash of negligent discharges as police kept putting their fingers on the much lighter trigger. One incident in particular where a cop shot a suspect because of this. Despite it being a training issue, many departments became wary of Glocks, so adjustments like the NYPD trigger were born as a way to placate the issue.
Well, you’re definitely correct about many PDs using revolvers before switching to Glocks. That goes back to the Miami shootout with the FBI; FBI agents were still using revolvers at the time, and they were significantly outgunned b/c one of the suspects was armed with a Ruger Mini-14 rifle. As a result, the FBI started looking for a better sidearm, and the initially settled on 10mm before adopting the .40S&W. Glock managed to bring a .40S&W pistol to market before Smith & Wesson did (!!!), and then charged below cost for PDs in order to convince them to adopt the then-new firearm.
And after finding an article about it, it looks like the NYPD did want to match the pull of their old double-action service revolvers. Which is nuts.