Click here to view the embedded video.
There’s a story developing in south Florida about the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office experiencing a high number of malfunctions in their GLOCK handguns. Specifically, firing pins are cracking and chipping in the handguns, causing failures to fire. The local CBS affiliate has the story . . .
Obtained by CBS4 News, the confidential sheriff’s department document outlines a series of incidents in which problems with the Glock firing pin caused the gun to malfunction and not fire.
Issued by the department’s armor, or gun expert, the March 13 report is titled simply: Firing Pin Issue. In each case where there was a misfire, the gun was taken apart and the firing pin was found to be cracked or chipped.
[...]
A spokesman for Speer Ammunition, the company that provides ammunition to the PBSO, told CBS4 News:
“We are committed to providing our customers with the best ammunition available to meet their needs. We have been working directly and swiftly with the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Department and their firearms manufacturer to determine a solution for their concerns about premature firing pin erosion. We are confident that we’ve jointly addressed their concern.”
It sounds like GLOCK is focusing on the ammunition that the department is using as the culprit, and that seems to make sense. Every incident that the PD’s report lists seems to have been from the last few months, a time when we were at the height of the ammunition shortage and some substandard ammunition was making its way into the supply chain.
The real clue here is that this seems to be an isolated incident. Only one police department is reporting the problem, and even surrounding departments have re-checked their weapons and found no issues. So whatever the problem happens to be, it should be something related to either a unique maintenance method used at that one department or some sketchy ammo purchased there.
