For Release: Thursday, November 8, 2018
Washington, DC—Following news reports that the handgun used in the mass shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, California, was a Glock 21 45 caliber pistol equipped with an extended high-capacity ammunition magazine, the Violence Policy Center (VPC) today released The Glock Pistol: A Favorite of Mass Shooters.
According to the VPC backgrounder, “The high-capacity Glock pistol stands as a stark example of the gun industry’s marketing of increased lethality. Since the mid-1980s, increased firepower and capacity have defined the products of the gun industry—of both U.S. and foreign manufacture.”
The backgrounder (http://vpc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Glock-Backgrounder-November-2018.pdf) explains how Glock touts the use of its pistols by law enforcement and the military in the company’s marketing efforts and also documents how Glock pistols have been part of the arsenals of the some of the most infamous mass shooters in the United States. These incidents include: the 2015 attack at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, that left nine dead; the 2011 attack at a Safeway parking lot in Tucson, Arizona, that left six dead and 13 wounded—including then-U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords; and, the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting which left 33 dead and 17 wounded.
The Violence Policy Center is a national educational organization working to stop gun death and injury. Follow the VPC on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
