I'm thinking there's some sort of market advantage Glock perceives, but I can't for the life of me think what it is.
Blue guns used in holster manufacture as molds? Trying to set up a network of "preferred" holster makers?
I can't imagine there's any concern over unrestricted teaching of disarmament/retention techniques. Having your exact service/carry weapon is helpful, but any old gun-shaped object will do.
They don't shoot, don't even have any moving parts, so there's no conceivable way they dilute actual Glock sales.
The only thing I can think of is that the vast majority of blue-gun sales are to LEO's/LEA's for training anyway, so there's little real risk of alienating the "civilian market" and there's any number of products, like Remington shotgun folding stocks, certain lines of ammo that are marked or restricted to "Law Enforcement Use Only" even though there's no legal regulation mandating as such, simply to increase their "panache" in those markets.
Few groups/people are above something that "makes them feel speshul", which is dumb of course, but it works.
Is this ONLY in the US, or internationally? I read recently that Mexico has a major problem with toy guns that people paint to look real. Not sure how easy is it is to get blue guns in other countries, but maybe Glock is taking part in some "stop toy gun violence" push or something.
With the ubiquity of 1:1 Airsoft replicas from Asia, that have more realism, are often cheaper than the blue gunssuch as actual bores, functioning slides etc., I can't imagine why someone would go through the trouble to paint a blue gun for crime or intimidation purposes.
