Glock handguns' appeal unabated after Tucson

What do Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, football player Plaxico Burress and two-thirds of America's cops have in common? They've all used Glock handguns, the firearm used to deadly effect in the Tucson killings.

The semiautomatic is treasured by thugs, gun enthusiasts and police departments. Add this sad oddity: Giffords, now badly wounded by one, remarked last year, "I have a Glock 9mm, and I'm a pretty good shot."

Made in a small Austrian town, Glocks are reliable, quick-firing and light, thanks to composite plastic, a feature that lifted the brand from the pack of look-alike competitors. When the handguns landed here in the 1980s, a star was born.

For police, the guns were an easy sell. Cops wanted an equalizer in confronting gangs and others toting powerful weaponry. The escalation wasn't lost on the world of rappers and wannabe thugs looking for male jewelry: a super-lethal fashion statement.

New York Giants star receiver Burress was carrying a Glock when it went off accidentally in a Manhattan nightclub, injuring his leg. For this idiot move, he drew a two-year sentence on an unlicensed-gun charge.

An estimated 602,000 Glocks were imported in 2009. The online gun world of weekend shooters, off-duty cops and collectors treasures the Glock lineup for its reliability, design and performance.

But we're still talking about a concealable handgun. Enumerating the gun's virtues and popularity is like praising the AIDS virus for its longevity. The guns don't teach children, provide clean drinking water or help a senior across the street. Glocks kill. Or, as the Glock catalog puts it, they offer "efficient defense in emergency situations."

Which brings us to Tucson. As the circle of Glock lovers has widened, it has drawn in nuts who have no business owning one. Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people including himself at Virginia Tech in 2007, carried one on his rampage. Jared Lee Loughner allegedly used a Glock with an extra-capacity magazine last weekend to inflict lethal mayhem on a crowd gathered to meet Giffords. Both shooters used Glock 19s, the company's state-of-the-art top seller.

If you think such notoriety will dent its appeal, think again. A Tucson gun shop owner says Glock sales have gone through the roof since the shootings. Why? A fearful public wants protection and buys a hot-selling option, some say.

One thing the public doesn't have to worry about is finding a Glock. Gun control efforts, which surge after public outrages like the Tucson killings, will probably subside, given the sorry history of such efforts. The National Rifle Association, which is both judge and jury on gun laws in Washington, hasn't even bothered to weigh in to oppose new anti-gun measures.

The reason for the NRA's quiet confidence is clear. Even with the near assassination of a congresswoman, few politicians want to take up even the tamest change, such as banning the extra-capacity bullet clips used by Loughner. A federal judge, a 9-year-old girl and four others died in Tucson, but the gun will live on.

Marshall Kilduff is a Chronicle editorial writer. E-mail him at mkilduff@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 7 of the San Francisco Chronicle