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Tuesday, May 05, 2020

In pictures: The Italian village that makes the world’s guns

GARDONE VAL TROMPIA, Italy — Tucked away in a picturesque valley in the Italian Alps is the birthplace of most of Europe's small firearms — and Al Pacino's gun in "Scarface."

Surrounded by greenery and — key to its main industry — iron mines, Gardone Val Trompia, with around 10,000 inhabitants, is the Italian, European and world capital of firearms, producing 70 percent of the small arms (used for sport and hunting) used in the EU and 40 percent of those used worldwide.

In 2016, the valley's gunmakers sent 395,000 firearms to the United States alone.
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-Rurik
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10 comments:

  1. Tsgt JoeMay 5, 2020 at 1:19 PM

    I once had a M1 garand marked GARDONE VT, I thought it was made in vermont but couldnt find a town named gardone in vermont. At least thats how I remember it. my kid in south carolina has it now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lord of the FleasMay 5, 2020 at 1:39 PM

    And sure enough, the first picture at the top of the article is a revolver being aimed directly at the reader.

    Agenda much?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HeathenMay 5, 2020 at 8:24 PM

      Of course,it's Politico after all.

      Delete
  3. southside tonyMay 5, 2020 at 1:58 PM

    Didn't know that,very cool and a great article. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bobo the HoboMay 5, 2020 at 3:15 PM

    I wish I knew of this place when we lived in Italy!

    ReplyDelete
  5. ABEMay 5, 2020 at 3:46 PM

    That's where my Beretta 92FS is from. I was young and didn't know at the time that I had a choice of USA made and Italian. It's still a nice pistol.

    ReplyDelete
  6. CritterMay 5, 2020 at 3:51 PM

    And still family owned.

    ReplyDelete
  7. bogsidebunnyMay 5, 2020 at 5:04 PM

    Never fired and only dropped once.

    ReplyDelete
  8. iOpenerMay 5, 2020 at 8:40 PM

    "Uhersky Brod".

    Google it, adding "CZ factory"

    I was there. Drank an 'Uhersky Brod' beer in a local pub. Was too goddam stupid even to know the factory was there, much less tour it.

    Silly, silly me: http://www.rustyhubbard.com/tour.html

    ReplyDelete
  9. Don CurtonMay 6, 2020 at 10:22 AM

    Would love to visit. I have several Uberti replicas and while nice, I've had to do a little home gunsmithing on some of them so not 100% perfect. That said, I would wager that the quality is on par or even better than the originals were back in the 1800's. At least in terms of metallurgy and parts interchangeability. I would absolutely love to see Uberti start making some of the early 1900's Smith double-actions. Not sure of legality, but until S&W stops putting that stupid safety hole on their revolvers, I can't really see buying another new one. But a 44 special triple lock replica? Awesome.

    ReplyDelete

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