Daewoo USAS-12

The USAS-12 is a combat shotgun made and developed in South Korea by Daewoo Precision Industries during the 1980s.

Description
The USAS-12 is a gas-operated, selective-fire weapon which bears a certain resemblance to the M16 assault rifle and is designed to provide sustained firepower in close-combat scenarios. It accepts detachable 10-round box magazines or 20-round drum magazines. Both types of magazine are made of polymer, and drum magazines have their rear side made from translucent polymer for quick determination of the number of shot shells left.

The latest version of the USAS-12 is capable of fully automatic fire.

History
The history of the USAS-12 shotgun dates from the 1980s vintage designs of Maxwell Atchisson. In about 1989, Gilbert Equipment Co. (USA) decided to bring up the selective fired weapon, broadly based on principles, employed in Atchisson shotguns. The design of the new weapon was produced by John Trevor Jr. Since Gilbert Equipment Co. had no manufacturing capabilities, it started to look for possible manufacturers. It turned out that the only maker that agreed to produce this weapon was the South Korean company Daewoo Precision Industries, a part of the high-tech Daewoo conglomerate. Daewoo engineers adapted the new weapon to their manufacturing techniques, and mass production commenced in the early 1990s. This gun sold well to military and security forces of several (unspecified) countries in Asia, and more than 30,000 of USAS-12 shotguns were made by mid-1990s. During the same timeframe, Gilbert Equipment Co. tried to bring semi-automatic version of USAS-12 to the U.S. market, but the BATF promptly classified this weapon as "having no sporting purpose", so it became "Class III destructive device" under the U.S. National Firearms Act of 1934. This greatly restricted its civilian use. During the late 1990s, RAMO Defence Co. began to assemble USAS-12 shotguns from Korean and U.S.-made parts for sale on domestic market, but sales of this weapon were limited to government agencies only. Today, this gun is still being manufactured by Daewoo in Korea for Military and Law Enforcement sales only. Recently, a US firearms manufacturer, Ameetec Arms LLC of Scottsdale, Arizona, has started the manufacture of a USAS-12 semi-automatic clone, called the WM-12; it mainly differs from the USAS-12 by the lack of fixed sights and carrying handle, replaced by a Picatinny Rail. The manufacturer states that the WM-12 is not a Destructive Device, and is thus readily available to civilians. As for January 2008, however, the WM-12 was no longer to be found on Ameetec Arms online catalogs due to the fact that it was discontinued after its initial production run of 500.