Inventor of Glock pistols: Who is Gaston Glock?

Despite the popularity of the pistol he invented, Glock was a billionaire who lived a reclusive life and spent most of his time at his lakeside home in Austria.

Gaston Glock was also rarely in the news. He became famous when a book about his work was published in 2012 when he divorced his first wife in 2011, and when a business partner tried to have him killed in the late 1990s.

In the assassination attempt, the hit man, who was a professional wrestler, hit Glock in the head seven times with a hard plastic hammer to make it look like an accident, but the inventor, who was 70 years old at the time, beat the attacker until he was unconscious.

Gaston Glock (19 July 1929 – 27 December 2023) was an Austrian engineer and businessman. He founded the company Glock, and developed the Glock pistol in 1982, which became one of the most influential and popular light firearms of the 20th century.

While it was stated in the company's statement that "Gaston Glock has strategically guided the Glock Group throughout his life and prepared it for the future," it was emphasized that Glock "revolutionized" the pistol world and made the Glock scissors a global leader in the pistol industry.

Born in Vienna in 1929, Glock studied mechanical engineering in the same city.

Later, in the 1980s, he founded a business producing military materials. Later, at the request of the Austrian Army, which wanted to renew the pistols of its personnel, Glock designed a lightweight gun that could fire 18 bullets with a diameter of 9 millimeters and whose magazine could be easily changed.

Glock pistols have attracted a lot of attention from law enforcement agencies around the world.

Paul Barret, author of "Glock, the Rise of America's Gun," wrote that Glock "is the Google of modern handguns, the leading brand that defines the product category."

Forbes magazine estimated that Gaston Glock's personal fortune was $1.1 billion in 2021.

But over the years, opponents of personal arms have criticized Glock for popularizing a handgun that was easier to conceal and could fire more rounds than its counterparts.

Deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein also had a Glock pistol with him when he was captured by US soldiers in 2003.

In 2018, former American marine David Long, who was reported to have psychological problems, killed 12 people, including a police officer, with a Glock in a bar.

Glock did little to respond to criticism from individual gun opponents, and it also did not join other gun manufacturers in entering into a voluntary arms control agreement with the U.S. government in 2000. Gaston Glock was the father of two children.