The Business of Guns

of their revolvers that lawsuits became common, and the government forced competing gun manufacturers to stamp “Manufactured for Smith & Wesson” on their ersatz revolvers as a way to permanently tie the brand to the gun. Their patent for a cartridge-loading revolver so constrained other American gun manufacturers that the federal government criticized the company for preventing the development of new firearm technology. With the end of the Civil War, demand for Smith & Wesson revolvers dropped profoundly. The company changed its marketing tactics, appealing to an exotic ideal of the American

Wesson’s large, heavy revolvers were replaced by smaller pistols.

The Business of Guns

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