"Created in 1982 by Gaston Glock, an Austrian curtain-rod manufacturer, the Glock arrived stateside during the 1980s crime epidemic. Through gun buybacks, discounts and Glock-sponsored junkets to strip clubs, the company seduced many law enforcement agencies into trading their obsolescent service revolvers for semiautomatic Glocks. Troubled by some of the gun’s innovative features — for instance, the Glock lacks an external safety mechanism; its “trigger safety” is released by merely pulling the trigger, a rarity with semiautomatics and the cause of many self-inflicted gunshot wounds among police officers who recklessly drew their new weapons — Congress convened hearings on the Glock, and several municipalities banned the gun. Through these simultaneous developments, Barrett writes, the gun “inherited all aspects of the American firearm heritage: It was seen as an instrument of law and security, but also menace, danger and fear.” Americans’ desire for a certain gun is elementary: if cops use a gun or if a weapon’s availability is threatened, people demand the gun."