Tag: Gaston Glock

Gaston Glock was born on July 19, 1929 in Vienna, Austria. He is a chemical engineer and a renowned businessman who founded Glock Ges.m.b.H in 1963.

Gaston Glock married his former wife Helga Glock in 1962. They have three children together: Brigitte, Gaston Jr, and Robert. In 2011, Gaston divorced Helga Glock and revoked her and their children’s stake in his company, and a very messy court case ensued. Gaston re-married in the same year, to his former nurse, Kathrin Tshicof, who was 31 years old at that time.

Glock Ges.m.b.H started out manufacturing curtain rods and hinges, not firearms. The company only started making handguns in the 1980s when Gaston Glock designed a handgun for the Austrian military. He applied for a patent on his Glock “safe action” pistol or Glock 17 in 1981. The following year, the Glock 17 became the standard issue for Austria’s armed forces.

Today, Glock has a 60% share of the handguns used in local enforcement here in the US, which was used to be dominated by Smith & Wesson handguns.

In 2012, Paul Barrett wrote the book Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun. The story was about the life Gaston Glock and the company he built, Gaston Ges.m.b.H