When I want advice on how to run a gun company, I know the first place I look is The Daily Beast.

The left-leaning site has tons of posts decrying gun ownership, the firearm industry, and the Second Amendment, but if you’re a company like, say, Glock, you should totally take their suggestions on what products you should and shouldn’t offer.

In all seriousness, the idea is ridiculous.

Yet when word surfaced that Glock might be considering an AR-15, a lot of people had feelings. For many, it was excitement. Glocks are great pistols at a reasonable price, all things considered.

But The Daily Beast thinks they shouldn’t do it. Why? Because people will be upset.

Earlier this month, a multi-platform social media account called Mrgunsngear posted what is described as a “leaked” photo of an AR-15-type rifle bearing the familiar Glock logo. A Mrgunsngear YouTube video reports that features of the weapon as seen in the photo match a slew of patents that Glock secured in 2019. And the patents correspond to specifications listed in a British military solicitation for a new weapon for its special forces.

Glock has essentially confirmed that the photo of the military prototype is genuine, but added that there are no present plans to produce a civilian version.

“Glock is always in development of future products and technologies through the pursuit of perfection,” read a statement from the company to The Daily Beast last week. “The image shared is of a product developed for select solicitations and it is not available for the general market at this time.”

…

If Glock decided to parlay a military contract into a consumer product, Busse feels sure the AR-15 would be a success even though there are, by his count, more than 500 companies making such assault weapons.

“I think Glock would instantly have a sizable portion of the market,” Busse said. “Glock would be an instant player with a sizable market share.”

It could become the hot new accessory in the street.

“Maybe it would increase the popularity of the guns in that sort of urban environment where we see a lot of Glocks used these days,” [Ryan] Busse said.

But with that popularity could come public condemnation.

See, the way The Daily Beast figures it, if they make an AR-15, it’ll be just one mass shooting away from being vilified by the media and the general public.

It’s almost adorable that they think literally anyone in the gun industry should care what they have to say about, well, anything.

They bring up Daniel Defense and how they were roasted in the media.

However, what they fail to note is that, so far as I can tell, none of that impacted the company’s bottom line. None of it lost them any support with their typical customer base.

And with Glock, it’s unlikely it would be any different.

You see, the people who typically buy guns are people who recognize that a gun is a tool. It serves whoever is holding it because it has no volition of its own. They’re not likely to blame Glock for the actions of some maniac.

Besides, Glocks have been used in mass shootings before. A Glock 19 was one of the pistols used in the Virginia Tech shooting.

No one boycotted or blamed Glock, now did they?

Honestly, if Glock comes out with an AR-15, it’ll sell pretty well. It may or may not be used in something horrific, but that can be said about literally every gun on the market. The only reason there’s outrage about AR-15s, regardless of the maker, is that the media wants us to be outraged. They blame the manufacturer for AR-15s but not for handguns, despite those being used more often in mass shootings.

Ryan Busse says his contacts tell him Glock is going to release an AR-15. How that grifter got anyone in the industry to take his calls is an absolute mystery to me, so I’m skeptical.

What I’m very sure of is that no one in Smyrna or Austria actually cares what The Daily Beast thinks.