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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, APRIL 4, 1986
We also reported that a Pentagon security expert had succeeded
twice in carrying a dismantled Glock 17 through the human and
mechanical weapons detectors at Washington's National Airport.
After our January report, Glock and the Austrian government
began issuing refutations in press releases and telegrams to
major publications. Their concern was presumably heightened by
the fact that Glock is attempting to market the pistol in the
United States. One Pentagon spokesman had the nerve to tell a
journalist that he doubted the existence of the "Pentagon
security expert" we said had tested the Glock 17 against
airport security. For the record: The man who conducted the
unofficial test is the Pentagon's top expert on counter
terrorism, Noel Koch, the principal deputy assistant defense
secretary.
Glock told anyone who would listen that tests under the
supervision of unnamed "official security specialists" showed
clearly that "both scanners and detectors can identify the
Glock 17," which has a mass that is 83 percent steel and only
17 percent plastic. The point, of course, is that the metal
parts which .!!.! detectable, don't
122!
like gun parts, while
the plastic parts, which do look like! gun, escape detectio
!2£1!
proved _!:.b.!! twice with! dismantled Glock 17.
In fact, Rep. Mario Biaggi, o�N.Y., settled the matter beyond
any nitpicking.
One of his aides hand-carried the most
recognizable part of a Glock 17--its plastic pistol-shaped
frame--through a Capitol Hill metal detector without having it
spotted. The rest of the pistol's parts, mostly metal, were in
his briefcase and went through the scanner without being
identified.
[In a test conducted by ABC News, a person
carrying the metal parts was stopped, but only because the
scanner operator wanted a closer look at the metal. Operators
are now being educated as to the profiles of the parts. The
quality of the operators is now the essential factor.]
Meanwhile, both the Federal Aviation Administration and the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms suddenly decided the
problem of plastic handguns deserved attention. The aviation
agency has since learned of a o.s.-made, all-plastic pistol,
which is not yet on the market but which would be undetectable
by a metal-scanning device••••
Bow serious is the problem of a gun that can beat the airport
security machines?
Some FAA figures should make clear that
it's deadly serious. Since mandatory screening procedures went
into effect at U.S. airports in 1973, more than 33,000 firearms
have been detected and almost 14,000 related arrests have been
made. Officials estimate that at least 113 hijackings have
been prevented. Footnote: Glock told us he has never sold bis
pistols to Libya, and has no ongoing negotiations to do so.
But other sources told us that, without Glock's knowledge,
Khadafy was trying to buy the guns through intermediaries in
Austria••••
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