Established in 1963 near Vienna, Glock's company revolutionised small arms, expanding globally with a U.S. subsidiary in 1985.
ADVERTISEMENTGaston Glock, the Austrian billionaire and developer of the handgun that bears his name, has died aged 94.
Glock handguns, recognised for their lightweight design, affordability, and reliability, have been embraced by police, security forces, criminals and many rap stars worldwide.
The weapon's fame was further solidified by its pervasive presence in American pop culture, notably in Hollywood blockbusters like The Matrix Reloaded, Die Hard 2, The Dark Knight and the John Wick Series.
The Glock company has said in a statement that its founder “not only revolutionised the world of small arms in the 1980s, but also succeeded in establishing the Glock brand as the global leader in the handgun industry.”
"In Glock we trust"
The handgun's popularity among law enforcement led to Glock being compared to Apple's Steve Jobs and his impact on home computing.
Fritz Ofner, director of Weapon of Choice' one of the rare documentaries into the Austrian, told AFP in 2018 that around 80% of US police officiers are equipped with the pistol and regularly use the term "In Glock we trust" between themselves.
According to Ofner, when rap became the dominant force on the US music scene towards the end of the 1990s, Glock was the brand most cited in the top 50, further cementing its place in pop culture history.
The man behind the Glock
Glock, born in Vienna on 19 July 1929, was conscripted into the Wehrmacht as a teenager towards the end of World War II, after which he graduated from school as an engineer and joined a hand drill company.
His foray into manufacturing began in the 1960s when he started his company by producing curtain rods. He then delved into crafting knives for the Austrian military in the 1970s.
Remarkably, it wasn't until the age of 52 that Glock, with no prior experience in firearms, designed and manufactured his first groundbreaking invention.
Drawing on his earlier experiences with polymers, Glock assembled a skilled team of engineers from the camera industry, experts in producing polymer components, and the Glock 17, a lightweight semi-automatic gun largely made of plastic, was born.
Paul Barrett, the writer of 'Glock: The Rise of America's Gun', wrote that the handgun had become "the Google of modern civilian handguns: the pioneer brand that defines its product category".
Despite the ubiquity and popularity of his creation, Gaston Glock maintained a reclusive life, spending the majority of his time at a lakefront estate in Austria.
In 2021, Forbes approximated Glock's individual wealth to be $1.1 billion (€1.26 billion).
Failed assassination attempt
Rarely making headlines, he only attracted public attention when a book about his business surfaced in 2012, following a divorce from his first wife in 2011, and when a business associate, Charles Ewert, attempted to have him killed in the late 1990s.
Glock, 70-years-old at the time, reportedly fought off a hired attacker - a professional wrestler - who assaulted him in a car park with a rubber mallet.
Both Ewert and the assassin were convicted of attempted murder and sent to prison.
Throughout the years, gun-control advocates criticised Glock for popularising powerful guns that they said were easy to conceal and could hold more ammunition than other guns.
ADVERTISEMENTGlock rarely addressed these critiques and declined to align with other firearms manufacturers who entered into a voluntary agreement on gun control with the US government in 2000.
He is survived by his wife, a daughter and two sons.
