Gen 5 Glocks could be bad news for competitors

By Christen Smith

The business end of a Glock 17 Gen 5 pistol. (Photo: Daniel Terrill/Guns.com)
The Gen 5 Glocks look poised for a sales boom once the highly-anticipated pistols hit dealers’ shelves Wednesday — kicking Smith & Wesson while its down, according to market analysts.
Share prices for American Outdoors Brands dipped 4.5 percent Tuesday ahead of the pistols’ release, following a trajectory analysts warned lay ahead for Smith & Wesson’s parent company, and other publicly-traded gun makers, including Sturm, Ruger & Co.
“These weapons have made some material improvements over the previous generations,” said Josh Dorsey, Glock’s vice president, at the company’s media presentation earlier this month. “In my view, in my humble opinion, I believe that this Gen 5 has the potential to revolutionize the handgun market.”
The fifth generation G17 and G19, reportedly inspired by the FBI’s Glock M pistols, features ambidextrous slide stop levers, a non-polyagonal rifle barrel and a redesigned grip sans finger grooves. The firearm stands as a direct competitor to Smith & Wesson’s M&P 2.0 and Ruger’s brand new American pistol line, both of which rolled out at SHOT Show in January.
“I’m really excited about these kind of reliability numbers because anybody whose been shot at knows how important that

Source: Guns.com