Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta is a major Italian firearm manufacturing company. Its firearms are used worldwide by civilians, police, and armies.

History

Beretta is one of the world's oldest corporations, and it has been owned by the same family for some five hundred years. The Beretta company was established in 1526, when gunsmith Maestro Bartolomeo Beretta of Gardone Val Trompia (Brescia, Lombardy, Italy) was paid 296 ducats in payment for 185 arquebus barrels by the Arsenal of Venice. The bills of sale for the order of those firearms are in the firm's archives.

In 1918, the Beretta Model 1918 was the second submachine gun the Italian army fielded. Beretta manufactured rifles and pistols for the Italian military until the 1943 Armistice between Italy and the Allied forces during World War II. With the Wehrmacht's control of northern Italy, the Germans seized Beretta and continued producing arms until the 1945 German surrender in Italy. In that time, the exterior finish of the weapons was much inferior to both the pre-war and mid-war weapons, but their operation remained excellent. the last shipment of Type I rifles left Venice for Japan in a U-boat in 1942.

After World War II, Beretta was actively involved in repairing the American M1 Garand rifles given to Italy by the U.S. Beretta modified the M1 into the Beretta BM-59 rifle, which is similar to the M14 battle rifle; armourers consider the BM-59 rifle superior to the M14 rifle, because it is more accurate.Nathuram Godse used a Beretta made semi-automatic pistol to kill Mahatma Gandhi.

Overview

Today, the company is owned and is run by Ugo Gussalli Beretta (a direct descendant of Bartolomeo) and his sons, Franco and Pietro. (The traditional father-to-son Beretta dynasty was interrupted when Ugo Gussalli Beretta assumed the firm's control; uncles Carlo and Giuseppe Beretta were childless; Carlo adopted Ugo, son of sister Giuseppina Gussalli, and named him a Beretta.)

Beretta is known for its broad range of fire arms: side-by-side shotguns, over-and-under shotguns, hunting rifles, express rifles, assault rifles, submachine guns, lever and bolt-action rifles, single and double action revolvers and semi-automatic pistols. The parent company; Beretta Holding, also owns Beretta USA, Benelli, Franchi, SAKO, Stoeger, Tikka, Uberti, the Burris Optics company and a twenty per cent interest of the Browning arms company.

The Beretta 92FS model is the official side arm of the United States military, designated the M9 Pistol. In 1985, Beretta was chosen after a controversial competition to produce the M9 9mm Parabellum side arm for the U.S. military, winning a contract for 500,000 pistols. A condition of the original agreement was domestic fabrication of the M9 military pistol. The Beretta USA factory, in Accokeek, Maryland, manufactures military, police, and civilian pistols.

Pistols

• Beretta M1915
• Beretta M 1934 / Beretta M 1935
• Beretta M 1951
• Beretta M-100
• Beretta 21 Bobcat
• Beretta 3032 Tomcat
• Beretta 70
• Beretta Cheetah
• Beretta 8000
• Beretta 8000 Cougar
• Beretta 90
• Beretta 9000
• Beretta 92
• M9 pistol
• Beretta Px4 Storm
• Beretta 90two
• Beretta 93R
• Beretta 950 Jetfire
• Beretta U22 Neos
• Beretta 418
• Beretta 84 F