Glock handgun’s reclusive inventor Gaston Glock, 94, dies

The Glock handgun’s reclusive billionaire inventor, Gaston Glock, who ‘revolutionised the world of small arms’, has died aged 94.

The Glock firm mentioned in a press release that the life’s work of its founder would ‘proceed in his spirit’.

As nicely as being utilised by safety personnel, armed forces, gun homeowners and criminals worldwide, the weapon has additionally turn into American popular culture staple, that includes in a number of Hollywood blockbusters. 

Despite his success, Glock, who as soon as knocked out knowledgeable wrestler rent to assassinate him, has been portrayed as a reclusive character who loved spending a lot of his time at an Austrian lakefront property.

He managed to keep away from media protection for many of his life, however gained consideration in 2012 when a guide about his enterprise was printed, after a divorce from his first spouse Helga in 2011.

Gaston Glock throughout an occasion in Velden, Austria on October 23, 2008 

Arnold Schwarzenegger loading in a high-capacity journal into the Glock 18 in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Charles Ewert, who managed Glock’s affairs in Luxembourg, tried to have him killed within the late ’90s.

The employed attacker, who was knowledgeable wrestler, hit him seven occasions on the top with a rubber mallet however Glock, who was 70 on the time, managed to knock him out.

Ewert – also called Panama Charly – was sentenced to twenty years in jail for having organised the tried homicide in a Luxembourg automobile park. 

‘Gaston Glock charted the strategic path of the Glock Group all through his life and ready it for the longer term,’ the corporate mentioned.

It additionally famous that he had ‘revolutionised the world of small arms’ and ‘succeeded in establishing the Glock model as the worldwide chief within the handgun business’.

Glock was born in 1929 and went on to check mechanical engineering in Vienna. 

In 1963 he based his personal shopper items agency within the city of Deutsch-Wagram, 20 kilometres (12 miles) outdoors of the capital. 

By the early Nineteen Eighties Glock had branched into army provides and determined to reply a name for tenders put out by the Austrian military, which wished to replace its pistols.

He devised the Glock, a firearm that revolutionised the sector: made largely of non-metal elements, lighter, simpler to take aside, extra dependable, in a position to carry extra bullets than different manufacturers.

Once the contract with the Austrian military was finalised, the corporate’s fortunes soared when it entered the American market earlier than taking off globally.

Gaston Glockand his spouse Kathrin Tschikof. Glock married Tschikof, who’s 51 years his junior, in 2011

Between 2014 and 2017 alone, the corporate’s value is estimated to have risen by virtually 50 p.c and in 2021, Forbes estimated the fortune of Gaston Glock and his household at $1.1 billion.

American popular culture specifically helped Glock attain its iconic standing.

‘At the top of the Nineties, Glock was essentially the most talked about model’ within the American Top 50 singles chart, Fritz Ofner, one of many administrators of a movie concerning the Glock, mentioned in 2018.

Glock designed and patented a light-weight 9-millimetre semiautomatic handgun, able to capturing 18 rounds straightforward to reload. 

Paul Barrett, the creator of Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun, wrote that the Glock was now ‘the Google of recent civilian handguns: the pioneer model that defines its product class’.

The Glock’s ubiquity in popular culture noticed numerous rappers together with the Wu-Tang Clan weave mentions of the gun into their lyrics. 

In 2014, his then ex-wife unsuccessfully tried to sue Glock for $500 million, accusing him of racketeering and of diverting funds from the corporate, in addition to treating his household ‘with the mindless and self-destructive rage of Shakespeare’s King Lear’.

The lawsuit made a number of claims about how Glock had spent the cash, together with hiring strippers to symbolize the corporate at commerce exhibits. 

In 2011 Glock married a lady 51 years his junior, Kathrin Tschikof. 

Glock and his firm weren’t reticent about utilizing authorized means to defend their status, however this wasn’t at all times profitable.

In 2012 the corporate misplaced a long-running lawsuit for defamation towards the human rights organisation Amnesty International, which had drawn consideration to experiences of a Glock weapon being utilized by rebels in Sudan.

Glock is survived by his spouse, two sons and a daughter.