Gaston Glock has died

[Viking]

Source: Glock facebook account.

[WLJ]

Yep

GLOCK announced today that their founder, Gaston Glock, died Wednesday, December 27th 2023 at the age of 94.

GLOCK Founder Gaston Glock Has Died: 1929-2023
https://www.recoilweb.com/glock-founder-gaston-glock-has-died-1929-2023-183034.html

[lee n. field]

"he will live forever in the hearts of his followers"

Seriously, I didn't have any handle on how old he was. 

[K Frame]

Wonder if they'll bury him in a polymer coffin...

[WLJ]

Wonder if they'll bury him in a polymer coffin...

Porcelain

[French G.]

Anything special the mortician needs to pull to start disassembly?

[Ben]

RIP. I wonder if 50 years from now, he'll be thought of the same as John Browning?

[K Frame]

RIP. I wonder if 50 years from now, he'll be thought of the same as John Browning?

I doubt it. Glock didn't design the Glock 17. He brought together a team of engineers and firearms designers. Sure he had input on it, but it was a team effort even if the Glock website makes it seem like it was his baby 100%.

[Perd Hapley]

Even if he designed the Glock all by himself, that's just one gun, in different chamberings and sizes. Browning gave us the semi-automatic pistol as we know it today, along with very successful machine guns, rifles, and shotguns.

[MechAg94]

His company made an impact on the pistol design and markets regardless.  The Glock designs changed the market and triggered a big change in pistols used by police departments all over the world. 

[Angel Eyes]

In honor of his memory ...

https://twitter.com/mrgunsngear/status/1740045293486489672?s=12

[Perd Hapley]

His company made an impact on the pistol design and markets regardless.  The Glock designs changed the market and triggered a big change in pistols used by police departments all over the world.

And the military and civilian gun market as well.

[K Frame]

His company made an impact on the pistol design and markets regardless.  The Glock designs changed the market and triggered a big change in pistols used by police departments all over the world. 

Of course the company made an impact. But that's very different from holding Glock the man up to true designers like Browning, Pedersen, Siminov, Tokarev, Lee or Saive.

Glock was more along the lines of Oliver Winchester -- less of a designer than a businesman.

[WLJ]

In honor of his memory ...

https://twitter.com/mrgunsngear/status/1740045293486489672?s=12

Honestly one of the first things I thought of upon hearing the news of his death was whether or not we'll finally see safeties offered as an option on Glocks.
Kind of like what happened when Bill Ruger died and you started seeing options and guns he reportedly refused to produce suddenly started appearing

[Ben]

Honestly one of the first things I thought of upon hearing the news of his death was whether or not we'll finally see safeties offered as an option on Glocks.
Kind of like what happened when Bill Ruger died and you started seeing options and guns he reportedly refused to produce suddenly started appearing

I was thinking along the same lines. That is, what stuff might Glock offer now (or not offer)? I have zero knowledge on how Glock was run, especially recently, and how much say Gaston still had in anything they did. Was he an active decision-maker, or more of an Emeritus? Will we see the ever-rumored Glock rifles now?

[lee n. field]

Anything special the mortician needs to pull to start disassembly?

Nope, all you need is the Glock armorer's tool, though a punch will do nicely in a pinch.

[MechAg94]

Of course the company made an impact. But that's very different from holding Glock the man up to true designers like Browning, Pedersen, Siminov, Tokarev, Lee or Saive.

Glock was more along the lines of Oliver Winchester -- less of a designer than a businesman.

Yeah I agree.  Wasn't me who started those comparisons.  At a minimum, he did a good job from a leadership point of view in keeping the pistols focused on reliability and not jumping on every current trend of design modifications (except finger grooves).  That was big in maintaining a reputation for reliability, IMO. 

They were also one of the first to standardize a compact size in the G19.  Few other manufacturers ever made a good balanced compact design.  Seems to me you didn't see good compact competition until about 10 years ago. 

[lee n. field]

https://ordersemen.com/?field_name=glock

"Glock's Johnson"

[BobR]

The one thing I remember about Glock was his (or the company) ability to get it into the hands of so many Police departments in a short period of time. IIRC at times his discount to the LEO community was so deep it was almost a straight swap for what they had for the new Glocks. The company also started getting the gun used in movies and television. After all if it is good enough for Police departments and Bruce Willis hunting terrorist crooks it must be the best thing since sliced bread. It worked, you gotta give them credit for that.

bob

[MechAg94]

Yeah, did they start the plant the rumor about plastic Glocks that could go through metal detectors at the airport?  (Die Hard II ?)

[WLJ]

Yeah, did they start the plant the rumor about plastic Glocks that could go through metal detectors at the airport?  (Die Hard II ?)

I highly doubt that considering the dialog

    "Luggage? That punk pulled a Glock 7 on me. You know what that is? It's a porcelain gun made in Germany. It doesn't show up on your airport X-ray machines here and it costs more than what you make in a month!"
    ―John McClane on the Glock 7. [src]

https://diehard.fandom.com/wiki/Glock_7

Reads like it was written by someone who was highly anti-gun and knew zip about Glocks IMHO

Also from that link

When Glock pistols were first introduced to the market, they promoted their extensive use of non-metallic components. This generated controversy, fearing that this would make them easier to conceal from metal detectors - hence the scene in the movie. However, as described, the scenario shown in the film is pure Hollywood fiction. Armorer Mike Papac, whose company Cinema Weaponry supplied all of the firearms used in Die Hard 2, has commented, "I remember when we did that scene, I tried to talk them out of it. There's no such thing as a gun invisible to metal detectors, and there shouldn't be, but they wouldn't budge. They had it written into the script and that was that."

[gunsmith]

 RIP
   Mr Glock.

  I love Glocks, unless I somehow get wealthy enough to invest in a lot of training and ammo, Glocks and revolvers are my EDC .

 I would love to be able to carry a high quality five seven of some kind, or some status model 1911 in .45 acp or ten mil.
 But my finances are always up and down, My plan for the next few yrs is buying 3 or for Glock 19's and extra ammo .
 I have a Glock 42 - I had thought it would be a good candidate for inside the waist band - but I just don't like that method .
My new plan is wearing garments that conceal a G19 in a Bianchi carrylok on my right side

[T.O.M.]

What Gaston Glock accomplished is impressive, in terms of taking a pistol that was unique and marketing it to where it became the standard.  Think of how many striker fired polymer grip pistols are now on the market.  I know, the Glock was not the first (HK VP-70 was, right?), but wow did Gaston make it the first one common in holsters around the globe, and the one copied by...everyone.  Only fault I can see is doing so little to make it better.  Oh, and I agree.  Not in Browning's league, but still repectable.

RIP, sir.

[Ben]

What Gaston Glock accomplished is impressive, in terms of taking a pistol that was unique and marketing it to where it became the standard.  Think of how many striker fired polymer grip pistols are now on the market.  I know, the Glock was not the first (HK VP-70 was, right?), but wow did Gaston make it the first one common in holsters around the globe, and the one copied by...everyone.  Only fault I can see is doing so little to make it better.  Oh, and I agree.  Not in Browning's league, but still repectable.

RIP, sir.

Perhaps rather than Browning, he's closer to Samuel Colt.  https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/samuel-colt

Colt made the great equalizer with a revolver that saw some widespread use. In the same vein, Glock created a (relatively) inexpensive, simple to produce pistol of high capacity that goes bang every time, much easier to teach and use* than a revolver, 1911, or DA/SA pistol, and I'm pretty sure the G19 is the most popular pistol in much of the world right now.**

*Obviously there were previous examples of striker fire pistols, but none of them seem to have gone anywhere.
** I was just trying to find numbers, but only found wiki, which is not always reliable and only lists "Glock". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-produced_firearms

[K Frame]

Yeah, did they start the plant the rumor about plastic Glocks that could go through metal detectors at the airport?  (Die Hard II ?)

I first saw that trope in the late 1980s in, of all places, a "comic" strip. I forget which one, but it was one of the serial serious comics, Rex something?

One of the characters was saying to the effect of "It's a Glock, a totally plastic pistol that can't be detected by x rays or metal detectors!" Yeah, bullshit.