Has Glock had too much pressure that they decided to discontinue nearly their entire product line? I don’t think so. At least not in the way that they are being accused… I’ll explain.
What happened?
Here’s a link to Glock’s announcement: https://us.glock.com/en/discontinued-models
The argument:
Glock, in an effort to not be banned and to make the anti 2nd amendment states happy, have decided to abandon an extensive list of their products to then make “compliant” firearms for those states.
Why this analysis doesn’t fit:
There is no reason to abandon their models when they can simply introduce a new model to recapture that lost market space. Hard Stop.
Why what they said is clearly a better analysis:
Fact: Glock hasn’t done any major innovation on their products in YEARS. It is a known that they have ignored many markets and left themselves open to additional competition from groups like Palmetto who have made clones of the gen3 model.
If you consider companies that do not change over time in their products, methods of doing business, not responsive to market and political environments, you see those companies wither and die over time. Think of that restaurant on Kitchen Nightmares. They do some things well, but overall, they could do so much better!
Where the public analysis might fit, sort of:
Glock has issued letters to some states who have passed laws outlawing “Glock Switches”. The content of these letters is also misconstrued by the often apoplectic guntubers and their fans, saying that these letters are the wrong thing to do. I disagree. If I made a product and someone else created a product that converts my product into an illegal item, then that item has MY name applied to it when I had nothing to do with the manufacture sales or profits, I have a problem with that. You should too.
The business – this is a business, don’t forget – wants then to keep the name Glock “out their mouths”
It’s not the image they want to have. You likely don’t have a switch anyway. You are likely law abiding. You don’t want people talking about your name either. I’m sure you understand this.
The solution? Do what they should have been doing over the past 40 years! Innovate! Do better! They have the money to invest into transforming their products. I applaud it. Look at Kel-tec. Horribly innovative. But Glock? Meh, get a Canik, or a Dagger. Afterall the trigger is better in the Canik, and the Dagger is cheaper and better styled.
Conclusion:
Is Glock outright bending to the pressure? No. Are they using that pressure as part of their business analysis to pivot? Yes. Is this bad for the 2A community? Nah. They made excellent products that will never go away. The clones will be available forever because they are solid reliable products. All this does is allows Glock to graduate to the modern age, do some retooling and get new products out to the market!