Plastic guns were laughed at once.
Today polymer frames are the standard for service pistols.
Before Glock
Remington used polymer for its Nylon 66 rifle stock in 1959. Heckler and Koch followed in 1970 with the VP70, the first polymer-frame pistol, which was also striker-fired.
The Glock Revolution
In 1982 the Austrian Army adopted the Glock 17, a polymer-frame, striker-fired 9mm from a company that had never built a firearm before. Its reliability, low weight and simple controls changed what police and armed citizens expected from a handgun.
The New Standard
Competitors followed with the HK USP in 1993, the Smith and Wesson M&P in 2005 and the modular SIG Sauer P320 in 2014. In 2017 the U.S. Army adopted a version of the P320 as the M17 and M18, the first polymer, striker-fired pistol in general U.S. military service.
See the full Polymer Pistol Timeline