[Hoglaunccoolf]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobile...n_1196525.html

One year ago, on January 8, 2011, a young man opened fire on an unsuspecting crowd at a political gathering in a suburban Tucson, Ariz., shopping mall. The gunman used a Glock 19 pistol. Six people died; 13 others were wounded, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. One of the more remarkable facts to emerge from this horrible event was that Giffords also owned a Glock 19.

Invented just 30 years ago by an obscure Austrian curtain-rod manufacturer with little firearm experience, the Glock semiautomatic pistol has become in every sense America's gun. My book, "Glock: The Rise of America's Gun" (Crown, $26.00) outlines the history of the weapon. It is preferred by more U.S. police officers than any other sidearm. It stars in Hollywood movies, television cop shows, true-crime novels, and deadly serious op-ed essays. And it turns up in the hands of mass killers: in Tucson, at Virginia Tech, in Killeen, Texas.