![]() “Just remember what ol’ Jack Burton does when the earth quakes, and the poison arrows fall from the sky, and the pillars of Heaven shake. Yeah, Jack Burton just looks that big ol’ storm right square in the eye and he says: “Give me your best shot, pal. I can take it.” So speaks Kurt Russell in his starring role of the 1986 cult-classic movie Big Trouble in Little China; he went on to prove his point during the movie by showing his knowledge of and skill with by picking up a Tec-9, and although the end result was highly amusing the firearm went down in movie history. It also became part of television history as a model often seen in Miami Vice, a show renowned for its inclusion of unusual and effective firearms, but was cast in not such as positive light as it usually appeared in the hands of the villains! In real life though the KG-9, the predecessor of the US Tec-9, had a somewhat chequered and troubled history; Swedish company Interdynamic AB of Stockholm designed the MP-9 9mm machine in the early 1980s, with production commencing in 1983. It was intended as an inexpensive, fast-firing firearm based largely on the workings of the older Kulspruta Carl Gustav M/45. Interdynamic, though only ever produced a very small quantity of registered MP-9 submachine guns due to lack of demand. The MP-9 was made in two configurations, one with select fire capability and a collapsible stock and one that was fully automatic only with no stock. Production numbers are believed to be less than 50 in total, perhaps as few as 24 in select-fire with the collapsible stock. Interdynamic did not find a government buyer, so as with many designs the MP-9 was taken to the US market as the open-bolt semi-automatic KG-9 pistol. Interdynamic set up a US subsidiary intended principally to market a semiautomatic version, named the KG-9 after the two principal partners George Kellgren (who went on to form Kel-Tec) & Carlos Garcia. However, controversy plagued the design as it was quickly found that the open bolt design was too easy to convert to full-automatic fire and because of this the ATF forced Interdynamic to redesign it into a closed-bolt system, which was harder to convert to full-auto. This variant was called the KG-99. This was actually the model that made frequent appearances on Miami Vice (The KG-99 was actually manufactured in Florida for a time), where it was legally converted to full-auto by Title II Manufacturers. Tec No Prisoners In 1985 the TEC-9 appeared; this was essentially the MP/KG-9 under another name, as it was designed by Intratec, an American offshoot of Interdynamic AB. The TEC-9 was made of inexpensive moulded polymers and a mixture of stamped and milled steel parts. The TEC-9 was produced from 1985 to 1994. Following the 1989 Cleveland School massacre in California, further controversy ensued as the TEC-9 was placed in that state’s list of banned weapons. To circumvent this, Intratec rebranded a variant of the TEC-9 as the TEC-DC9 from 1990 to 1994 (DC standing for ‘Designed for California’) with purely cosmetic changes! The TEC-9 and, eventually, TEC-DC9 variants were listed among the 19 firearms banned by name in the USA by the now expired 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB). This ban caused manufacturer of this model to stop and forced Intratec to introduce a newer model called the AB-10, a TEC-9 Mini without a threaded muzzle/ barrel shroud and limited to a 10-round magazine instead of a 20- or 32-round magazine. However, it accepted the standard capacity magazines of the pre-ban models, 10-, 20-, 32-, 50-round box magazine and even a 72-round drum magazine! In 2001, following ‘by name’ bans in not only California but also in New York, New Jersey, and Maryland, and mentions in many well-publicised shooting incidents, Intratec went out of business and production of the AB-10 model ceased.
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