Gaston Glock dead at 94: Reclusive engineer and billionaire tycoon behind one of the world’s best-selling handguns dies
GASTON Glock, the engineer behind one of the world's top-selling handguns by the same name, has died at 94.
The Austrian businessman amassed a fortune of over $1.1 billion after garnering a loyal consumer base from police and military across the globe.
Glock died on Wednesday evening, but a cause of death has yet to be confirmed, per Reuters.
He is survived by his wife, Kathrin, his daughter, and two sons.
The famed firearm was created in the 1980s after Glock's company manufactured strictly knives and other consumer products aside from weaponry.
Austrian military officials sought an innovative addition to its firearms, and Glock answered by hiring a group of experts to create what ultimately became the Glock 17.
The Glock 17 was different from most guns at the time as it was predominantly plastic and semi-automatic.
Glock and his team beat out several other companies in a deal with the Austrian military at the time thanks to the design, which incorporated a sturdy nylon-based polymer frame and a singular metal slide.
It was assembled with ease and gained immediate popularity.
The Glock 17 firearm was recognized outside law enforcement and the military and quickly became referenced in pop culture.
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In the 1998 film U.S. Marshals, actor Tommy Lee Jones famous delivers the line: "Get yourself a Glock and lose that nickel-plated sissy pistol."
The movie signified the handgun's continued popularity in the United States, with prominent rappers referencing the weapon in songs and police officers replacing other pistols with a Glock in their holsters.
In 2003, former President George W. Bush was also given a Glock, reportedly found on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by US soldiers, per The New York Times.
Even with all the positive responses from police and military personnel over the Glock handgun, the 94-year-old engineer faced considerable backlash from gun control advocates.
They claimed that the firearm and its variations were too easy to obtain and conceal and held more ammunition than many others — making them particularly deadly in the wrong hands.
In Charleston, South Carolina, in June of 2015, white supremacist Dylann Roof shot and killed nine Black churchgoers at a Bible study session using a Glock handgun, per History.
A shooting by a former US Marine in November 2018 at a bar in Thousand Oaks, California, was also the result of a .45 caliber Glock with a high-capacity magazine.
A total of 12 people were killed, NBC News reported.
Glock remained mostly silent over the years to the criticisms and often kept away from the media in general, refusing to sign a voluntary gun control agreement with the United States in 2000.
A year earlier, in 1999, Glock also survived an attack on his life at 70, per court records obtained by Reuters.
Charles Ewert, an investment broker who used to manage Glock's funds, allegedly hired Jacques Pecheur, a former wrestler, to beat him with a rubber hammer.
Glock's lawyers claimed in court that the engineer grew suspicious of how Ewert was handling his finances and confronted him.
This supposedly enraged Ewert, resulting in the hiring of Pecheur and the subsequent altercation, where Glock suffered several blows to the head.
Ewert and Pecheur were placed behind bars.
Glock was married to his wife Helga until 2011 when the pair divorced and reportedly underwent a lengthy legal dispute over alimony.
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He later re-married to Kathrin, with an age gap of over 50 years.
Celebrities often frequented Glock's lavish lakefront mansion in the Carinthia province near the Slovenia border.