Beretta M9, formally Pistol, Semiautomatic, 9mm, M9, is a 9×19mm Parabellum pistol of the United States military adopted in 1985.
Beretta SpA, in full Fabbrica D’armi Pietro Beretta SpA (Italian: “Pietro Beretta Arms Works Limited”), Italian-based manufacturer of sporting, military, and personal firearms, one of the world’s oldest industrial enterprises. Headquarters are in Gardone Val Trompia, near Brescia, Italy.The founder of the business, Bartolomeo Beretta, was known as a maestro da canne, or master gun-barrel maker, for the republic of Venice as early as 1526. His son Giovannino inherited his father’s work in Gardone Val Trompia, and thereafter the family business was handed down over the centuries in an unbroken chain from fathers to sons or, more lately, nephews. The company manufactures and markets, worldwide, arms for hunters, competition shooters, law-enforcement officers, and military personnel; the products include field and high-grade sporting shotguns, rifles, pistols, military arms, knives, and such accessories as sights and scopes and binoculars.
Who-is-Who in MMS, History of machines, history of mechanical engineering, machine design, firearms