Between 1952 and 1956 an Italian designer named Cesare Lercker from Bologna developed a series of pistols and submachine guns. He worked with Beretta, although it is unclear if he did the work at their request of it the showed interest in the design after he came up with it. The submachine gun we are looking at today is chambered for .380 Automatic, while his pistols used .25 ACP. Only a handful of the submachine guns were made before the project was shut down by Italian authorities. While Lercker received government permission to make his guns, he did not have the authorization to make fully automatic firearms – it seems like there may have simply been a misunderstanding about the terminology of “automatic pistols” – but for right or wrong the project ended in about 1956.
Thanks to Beretta for giving me access to this example from their reference museum to show to film for you!
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