Raven Arms MP-25

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Raven Arms MP-25
MP-25 with black finish
Type	Semi-Automatic Pistol
Place of origin	United States
Production history
Designer	George Jennings
Manufacturer	Raven Arms
Produced	1970–1991
Number built	over 2 million
Variants	P-25 whitch is essentially the same
Specifications
Caliber	.25 ACP
Action	Single Action blowback , striker fired
Feed system	6 round magazine

The Raven Arms MP-25 is a .25 caliber semi-automatic handgun developed by George Jennings in the late 1960s.

In 1970, Jennings produced the inexpensive MP25 pistol and founded Raven Arms which was also known as the original Ring of Fire company. Ironically, it was a 1968 federal gun-control law prohibiting the importation of inexpensive handguns that prompted Jennings to enter the gun business in the first place.

Before Jennings developed the MP25, a friend who owned a small gun and pawn shop complained to Jennings, "I can't buy these guns any more, and I used to sell 500 of them a month." At the time, Jennings was running a machine shop that made parts for Southern California aerospace companies. Together, they cornered the market on small, inexpensive handguns, often called "junk guns" or "Saturday night specials." Raven Arms was born. Over the next 20 years, the company sold about 2 million guns. In parallel with this growth, gun-control advocates started pushing legislation in Washington, in state capitals and in city councils to ban inexpensive weapons.

Twenty-one years later, in November 1991, a fire destroyed the Raven Arms factory, and they are no longer in business. Jennings retired and sold the tooling from Raven Arms to the aptly-named Phoenix Arms, since it rose from the literal ashes of the earlier Raven Arms factory. Phoenix was owned in equal shares by his ex-wife, Jennings' children; four of his daughter's children; and by Raven's former general manager. The mainstay of the new company is still the .25 Raven model. Phoenix also sells larger .25 and .22 pistols "designed for personal protection as well as sport and target shooting."

As detailed in a 1992 article by Wall Street Journal reporter Alix Freedman, from an interview with Bruce Jennings, Jennings calls himself "the leading expert in the world on Saturday Night Specials." Jennings rejects charges that his family's inexpensive guns play a greater role in crime than more expensive guns made by up-scale manufacturers. Street criminals prefer semiautomatics, for their perceived superior firepower (some semiautomatic pistols can hold as many as 30 rounds of ammunition, though the Raven and similar guns only hold 6). Bruce Jennings founded Bryco Arms in 1992. According to the ATF, George Jennings' son-in-law, Jim Davis, founded Davis Industries, and Lorcin Engineering was launched by Jim Waldorf, one of Bruce Jennings' old high school friends. These companies and several others also linked to Jennings are known in the trade as the "Ring of Fire."

[edit] MP-25 history

Made in the City of Industry, California, this little handgun has been widely touted as the best small, cheap handgun ever made. Others consider it to be an example of one of the worst handguns ever made, for it typifies the type of gun known as a Saturday night special, being eminently small and inexpensive ($60-75 USD). The Raven, however, is considered more reliable than other inexpensive handguns, despite its low cost.

It has a capacity of six .25 ACP rounds in the magazine, and is made with a chrome or black finish and either wood or imitation pearl handles. There is also another model similar to the Raven Arms MP-25 known as the Raven Arms P-25, Both have similar blowback and envelope designs and are essentially identical firearms. The Raven has two kinds of safeties. One is a push up safety and the other a sliding bar.

[edit] References

• Torelli, John (2006) "Raven Arms MP25 Pistol". Jersey Small Arms Gunsmithing website - accessed February 7, 2007