I’m not just into guns, but history. So, naturally, historical guns are something I’m fascinated by. Unfortunately, many of the ones I’d like most are heavily restricted, ridiculously rare, hideously expensive, or some combination thereof.
But if I were to be able to get my hands on anything without concerns of cost, legality, or availability, but only one, my choice would be the M1918A2 BAR.
Yeah, it’s not a sexy as the MP5 or as iconic as the Thompson, nor have that modern cool factor of a Glock 18, but the BAR is one of those guns that’s has just resonated with me since I first learned about it.
And it seems that the final patents for the gun reach the 100-year-old mark this year.
Some of John Moses Browning’s last patents for the groundbreaking M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle hit their centennial anniversary this year. While Browning’s first prototypes were created near the end of World War I and the original patents were granted in 1919, some of his final tweaks didn’t come until near the end of his life.
Browning died in 1926 but not before filing his final adjustments to the BAR with the patent office in 1925. These refinements rounded out some of the finer points of the firearm that would become the iconic M1918A2 we know today. That’s the model that gained fame in the hands of American service members during both World War II and the Korean War.
Browning filed these latter patents as refinements to increase durability, reliability, and ease of use as he incorporated lessons learned from troops wielding the new firearm in the field. That included his own son, Lt. Val Browning.
John Browning is a legend in the gun design world for a reason. Sure, there are other well-known names in the gun world like Samuel Colt, I can’t think of any who made as much of a difference as Browning.
Especially as a number of his designs are still in use. The M2 machine gun, the 1911, and the Hi-Power are still running around the world, despite the designs being around for a century, give or take, depending on the gun.
And Browning still makes a BAR, though it’s nothing like the original, and it wouldn’t scratch my own personal itch, even if I were willing to settle for semi-auto.
The truth is that I doubt I’ll ever get a chance to own a real BAR, but I can still admire it from afar.
It’s a shame that I’ll likely have to settle for that, especially as it’s a marvel of engineering, much like so many other guns designed by John Moses Browning.
Still, we can look at the role that the gun played in the history of the world and this nation, seeing battle in World War I, World War II, Korea, and then even seeing action in Vietnam, though it was largely relegated to South Vietnamese troops in that conflict.
Celebrating a century of innovation in one of the most venerable weapon systems the United States military has ever fielded just seems right to me.
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