The Names Behind the Guns: Glock, Ruger, Taurus and Mossberg

The engineer who had never designed a gun

In 1980 the Austrian army announced it wanted a new service pistol. Among the people who decided to take a shot at the contract was a Vienna-born man past 50 who ran a business making curtain rods and military knives, and had not handled a gun since he was drafted into the Wehrmacht as a teenager at the end of World War II.

His name was Gaston Glock.

According to his Wikipedia biography, Glock and his wife Helga had founded their company in 1963. Through the 1960s it made curtain rods; in the 1970s, knives for the Austrian military. In 1980 he bought an injection-molding machine to make handles and sheaths for field knives in his garage workshop. What he did know, better than most gun designers of the day, was plastic.

He hired two engineers who had worked on Heckler & Koch's polymer-framed VP70 and P9 pistols, and the design took about a year. He applied for the Austrian patent in April 1981, and in 1982 the pistol won the trials and was adopted by the Austrian military as the Pistole 80. Glock was 52.

The name of that pistol is still argued about. One story holds that "17" was Gaston Glock's 17th patent; another says it refers to the magazine capacity. Wikipedia's Glock article lists both without picking. Pick your favorite at the gun counter; just know there's no settled answer.

The polymer gamble that became the standard

The Glock 17's frame used a nylon-based polymer Glock himself developed. A fourth-generation Glock 17 has just 34 parts. The first Glocks reached the United States in 1985, and after an adjustable rear sight was added to satisfy import rules, they went on commercial sale in 1986. Gen 5 arrived in August 2017.

Then, in October 2025, the company made its biggest lineup change in decades: it announced it would stop producing more than 30 variants, and in December 2025 it launched the V Series, marked with a "V" on slide and frame, as replacements. If you're shopping used, that's worth knowing: the generation and series stamped on a Glock now tell you a lot about parts and value.

Gaston Glock died in December 2023 at 94. The company still carries his name, and it's still headquartered in Deutsch-Wagram, Austria.

A red eagle, then a black one

Look at any Ruger and you'll find a heraldic eagle. Most owners assume it's a corporate logo like any other. It's actually a memorial.

Sturm, Ruger & Company was founded in 1949 in a small rented machine shop in Southport, Connecticut. Bill Ruger brought the gun design. Alexander McCormick Sturm brought 50,000 dollars in seed money and, as it turns out, an artist's eye. Sturm was a Yale graduate who had written and illustrated two children's books, collected guns, canes, swords and heraldry, played polo and served in the OSS in Washington during the war. He designed the company's emblem: a Germanic heraldic eagle, in red.

The company's first product, the Ruger Standard .22 pistol, borrowed the look of the German Luger and the Colt Woodsman. It sold so well that it launched the company, and its basic design lives on in today's Mark IV pistols, Ruger says.

Sturm didn't live to see much of it. He died in November 1951, aged 28. Ruger changed the eagle from red to black in mourning for his partner. It has been black ever since.

Bill Ruger ran the company until his death in 2002. Its stock began trading publicly in 1969 and moved to the New York Stock Exchange in 1990. And in a twist that would have been unthinkable a generation ago, Italy's Beretta Holding, which already held about 10 percent of Ruger, ran a tender offer in October 2026 to take its stake to as much as 25 percent, with the right to appoint two independent directors. The black eagle has new neighbors.

A bull, by way of the stars

Taurus means "bull" in Latin, and the brand's buyers often assume the name is about toughness. According to Wikipedia's company history, the Brazilian maker is named after the astrological sign Taurus.

The company began in 1939 as a tool-and-die forging plant in southern Brazil, under the name Forjas Taurus. Two years later, in 1941, it made its first revolver. The story that followed is full of connections to bigger brands:

• 1968: Taurus began exporting revolvers to the United States through importers.
• 1971: Bangor Punta, then the parent company of Smith & Wesson, bought 54 percent of Taurus.
• 1977: Bangor Punta sold its stake, ending the Smith & Wesson link.
• 1980: Taurus bought Beretta's São Paulo factory, along with tooling, drawings and workers for several pistol designs. Beretta had been building 92-series pistols there for the Brazilian army. The Taurus PT92 that followed is similar to Beretta's Model 92.
• 1982: Taurus set up a US subsidiary.
• 1997: It bought the rights to make Rossi-brand revolvers.
• 2019: Taurus USA moved from Miami to Bainbridge, Georgia.

Taurus's history also includes a hard chapter. In 2015 it settled a lawsuit for 39 million dollars and recalled nearly one million handguns made between 1997 and 2013. Today the company offers a Limited Lifetime Warranty for the original owner, provided the gun is registered within 30 days.

Mossberg: a Swede, two sons and a four-shot .22

Oscar Frederick Mossberg was born in 1866 near Svanskog in Värmland, Sweden, and emigrated to the United States in 1886. He spent decades in other people's gun factories. He worked at Iver Johnson, managed the C.S. Shattuck Arms factory, and was at J. Stevens Arms before moving to Marlin-Rockwell in New Haven, Connecticut in 1914.

In 1919, in his fifties, he founded O.F. Mossberg & Sons in New Haven with his sons Iver and Harold. Their first hit was the Brownie, a four-shot .22 pocket pistol made for hunters and trappers. About 37,000 were made between 1920 and 1932.

Oscar died in 1937, and Harold took over. In 1960 production moved to North Haven, Connecticut, still the company's headquarters. In August 1961, the company introduced the gun that would make the family name famous: the Mossberg 500 pump shotgun, designed by Carl Benson. By 2021, about 11 million had been built, and variants were adopted by US military and law enforcement agencies.

In 1989 an affiliate, Maverick Arms, opened a plant in Eagle Pass, Texas. The Maverick 88, a lower-cost pump related to the 500, carries that name.

Through all of it, the company stayed in the family. Mossberg describes itself as the oldest family-owned firearms maker in America.

What the names tell you when you buy

Brand history is fun, but it also has practical value:

• Founders' priorities show up in the product. Glock's polymer know-how produced a simple, few-parts design. Ruger grew from a single hit .22 pistol into roughly 40 product families, the company says. Mossberg's family company has always leaned toward affordable working guns.
• Corporate links affect parts and service. Taurus's Beretta-derived history explains why the PT92 looks the way it does. Beretta's growing stake in Ruger is worth watching for future products and distribution.
• Lineup changes affect used prices. Glock's 2025 discontinuations reshaped the new and used market for older models.

If you're buying a first Mossberg pump, the pump-action shotgun category lists current 500 and Maverick 88 models.

Whatever name is on the slide or receiver, the rules don't change: treat every gun as loaded, keep the muzzle in a safe direction, and store it locked and unloaded. And if one of these stories made you want to start a collection, our collection-order guide is a good next read.

Editorial note: This is an independent editorial overview built from manufacturer specifications, retailer listings and published sources. We have not performed hands-on testing of the products discussed, and nothing here is a performance guarantee. Verify specifications, compatibility and the law where you live.

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