Gaston Glock, creator of handgun that flooded the world, dies at 94

Gaston Glock, the inventor of the ubiquitous slender-barreled handgun which has flooded the world’s arsenals, died in Vienna, Austria this week at the age of 94. The Austrian-born engineer developed the 9mm semi-automatic handgun in 1982, and it quickly became one of the world’s most popular military service pistols. The Glock pistol has been adopted by police forces and militaries of more than 50 countries and is used by some of the world’s most elite special-operations units. It is also a popular choice for civilians. Glock developed the gun from a blank sheet of paper, inventing the plastic molding techniques and recoil-operating system which gave rise to the “Glock family” of handguns. Its popularity is largely because of its low manufacturing and maintenance costs as well as its notoriously reliable performance in combat. Glock also developed other firearms, including the Glock Model 18C, a fully automatic handgun, and the Glock 20, a 10mm semi-automatic handgun. He retired from the gun industry in 2002, when Glock GmbH, the company he founded, was at its peak. He is survived by his wife and four sons, who run the company today. His innovative and simple design is likely to last for decades to come, and his legacy lives on in the handguns he invented and in the countless lives they have saved.