SPAS-12

The Franchi SPAS-12 was manufactured by the Italian firm Franchi from 1979 to 2000 and sold to military and police users worldwide. Its distinguishing feature is dual-mode operation: the shotgun can be switched between semi-automatic and pump action by depressing a button under the fore-grip and sliding it forward or back until a rotating sleeve opens or closes the two gas ports. The name originally stood for Special Purpose Automatic Shotgun; in 1990 Franchi rebranded it the Sporting Purpose Automatic Shotgun so that a fixed-stock, limited-capacity version could continue to be exported to the United States, which lasted until the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban stopped imports altogether. Roughly 37,000 were built before production ended in favour of the SPAS-15.

The shotgun was designed to run primarily in semi-automatic, with pump action reserved for low-pressure ammunition such as tear gas rounds and bean bags that would not reliably cycle the action. Semi-automatic operation uses a short-stroke gas piston: gas vents from a port near the muzzle down into an annular gas block that encircles the magazine tube, driving a piston that pushes two sprung operating rods seated in the corners between barrel and magazine tube, which in turn drive the bolt carrier back and disengage a single top locking lug. A magazine cut-off allows the operator to load a different type of round directly into the chamber without unloading the one already there.

The best-known feature of the folding-stock models is the butt hook, which can be pushed in and rotated 90 degrees to sit under the firer's forearm, allowing the shotgun to be fired one-handed while rappelling or from a vehicle window. Two safeties are fitted: a lever or push-button safety, and a "quick employment safety" on the left of the trigger guard that disconnects the trigger and can be released with the trigger finger. Early lever safeties were recalled and replaced in the early 1990s. Four stock styles, four factory barrel lengths and four magazine extension tubes giving five to eight shells were produced, and the externally threaded barrel accepted chokes, shot diverters and a 44 mm grenade launcher used by France for explosive grenades out to 150 m. Two single-mode sister weapons shared its components: the semi-automatic-only LAW-12 and the pump-only SAS-12.

The SPAS-12 was widely adopted by special operations and gendarmerie units, including France's GIGN, Austria's EKO Cobra, Ireland's Army Ranger Wing, Argentina's Brigada Halcón, Brazil's GATE, Indonesia's Kopaska and Kopassus, Malaysia's National Special Operations Force, the Turkish and Moroccan gendarmeries, the Portuguese Armed Forces, Lebanese police and army, Egyptian military police and American police SWAT teams.