Gaston Glock, inventor of gun that bears his name, dies at 94

Gaston Glock, the Austrian engineer who invented the boxy Glock handgun, which has become a weapon of choice for national security forces, law enforcement officials, violent criminals and gun enthusiasts in America and around the world, died Wednesday. He was 94.

The Glock company announced his death on its website. Its statement did not provide further details.

The Glock is almost everywhere: fired in massacres and shootouts, glamorized in Hollywood movies, featured in television dramas, jammed into the belts of killers and thugs, worn by two- thirds of America’s police officers and the security forces of at least 48 countries. Its praises are sung by gangsta rappers, its silhouette is posted at airports, and it is a focus of gun- control debates.

Its creator was almost nowhere: a reclusive billionaire who owned his company and lived on a lake-front estate in Austria, shielded by guards, lawyers, financiers and servants. He was in the news rarely in 1999, when a business associate tried to have him killed (Glock knocked his assailant unconscious); in 2011, when at 82 he divorced his wife and married a 31-year- old woman; and in 2012, when “Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun,” by Paul M. Barrett, was published.

In 2017, Forbes estimated worldwide Glock sales at more than $500 million, with a 65% market share of handguns sold in theunited States. In 2021, Forbes estimated Glock’s personal fortune at $1.1 billion.

Before his gun became a global phenomenon, Glock managed a car-radiator factory near Vienna and, with his wife, ran a small business in his garage making door hinges, curtain rods and knives. He had not handled a gun since he was a teenage conscript in Adolf Hitler’s Wehrmacht at the end of World War II.

But one day in 1980, he overheard two Austrian army officers talking about a prospective new military contract for a pistol. He spoke to the officers, and later to experts on handguns. He then designed and patented a lightweight 9 mm semi- automatic, partly made of tough plastic, that could fire 18 rounds rapidly and be reloaded easily with a clip in the handle.

It was a dull black, industrial- looking wedge of rectangles without the fancy wood grip or sleek steel curves of the Smith & Wesson revolver. But it was cheap to produce, accurate and reliable, ready to fire even if soaked by rain, left in the snow or dropped on the sidewalk. Although its parts were plastic, its metal barrel set off airport security alarms. In 1982, the Austrian army ordered 20,000 Glock 17s, so named because it was his 17th invention.

Overcoming legal hurdles and benefiting from promotional campaigns, the Glock became a phenomenal seller, especially in the United States. It arrived in the mid-1980s, when crime rateswere soaring and police officers felt outgunned. New models and calibers with extended clips were introduced. Twothirds of America’s police forces, including New York City’s, adopted the Glock, as did many federal, state and county agencies.

Glock established manufacturing plants in the U. S., Europe and Asia and amassed a large personal fortune. He bought jet planes and a yacht, built an equestrian center to indulge his passion for horses and turned his vacation retreat at Velden, Austria, into a mansion on a guarded estate. He traveled and entertained associates, including rightwing ex t remist Jörg Haider. But he avoided publicity and valued his privacy.