The Way of the Gun

How exactly did the Glock, whose inventor was mainly producing curtain rods and knives, become our weapon of choice? (And by “our” I mean two-thirds of law enforcement officers in the country.) Mark A. Keefe IV has an excellent review of Paul Barrett’s Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun in the Washington Post. I blogged a bit more on this at weeklystandard.com.

Think back to when you first heard about the Glock. Was it Die Hard 2 (1990)? It was for me although John McClane says the gun is made in Germany, not in Austria. (I suspect the screenwriter thought a German weapon would sound more ominous than an Austrian one.) And while we’re on the subject of Die Hard 2: Talk about a film that wouldn’t work today—an entire airline crashes with everyone on board? (Remember when McClane finds the little girl’s doll?) And way too many villains to deal with—William Sadler, John Amos, and a Fidel Castro lookalike. What about all those grenades lobbed into the cockpit? Notice how long it took for them to explode. If only air traffic control really were in the hands of Fred Thompson!

In any event, the review is worth a read.

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