Premise: Its Uniqueness
Glock's company history is briefly introduced on a web page, Timeline | GLOCK USA. It started its activity as a plastic and steel parts manufacturer and then, in 1970s, shifted its field to military industry including knives. When this company started gun manufacturing after 1980, it brought its invention of nylon-based polymer, Polymer 2, to gun industry. That's Glock 17. So its origin and design policy are totally different from those of other gun manufacturers with long history such as Colt, Winchester and Smith & Wesson. This critical difference includes weight balance and safety mechanism.
Weight Balance
When I lived in Oklahoma -- BTW, that's why I call myself Oklahomer -- I visited H&H Shooting Sports every other week for sport shooting. My favorite choice of full-size handgun was Sig Sauer P226 and second was Colt M1911. Comparing to those 2 handguns, Glocks are extremely light. The weight of cartridges in magazine don't differ a lot so the lightness of front half stands out. It makes difficult to handle the recoil and aim of the second shot.I know lightness is important for those who must carry gun with them on daily basis such as police officers, but it doesn't profit me.
Its Mechanical Simplicity and Handling Complicity
Glock's safety mechanism, which is called Safety Action system, is pretty simple and unique. It's all about trigger and it doesn't include anything like M1911's manual and grip safety or P226's decocking lever, which I think is the biggest difference concerning safety.
I understand this Safety Action system is a reliable mechanism, but it's just a mechanism. *WE*, humans, make mistakes. To avoid misfire, I believe we need decocking lever or at least cocking indicator. Of course it should be O.K. as long as the shooter, such as law enforcer, handles only Glocks and has enough time for continual training. For others, like sport shooters, who handles various guns and can't afford to train daily basis, I think they should choose guns with more common safety mechanism that involves cocking indicator and decocking lever.
Conclusion
As I described above, Glocks are very unique in terms of its lightness and safety mechanism. I believe this can benefit law enforcers with adequate training and need of portability, but can disbenefit ocasional sport shooters.By the way I love Gunny from Full Metal Jacket, lol.
