AMERICANS FOR FIREARMS RIGHTS issued the following announcement on July 15.
Today, we know it as Ethiopia. Before that, it was the Abyssinian Empire, and it was headed by Emperor Haile Selassie I from 1930 until he was deposed by a Communist military dictatorship in 1974. The guns being brought into the United States by Royal Tiger Imports represent arms acquired by Ethiopia before he came to power, while he reigned, as well as after. They weren’t all Selassie’s, but most were carried while he ruled the East African nation.
After the Communists took over, firearms handed in by the people (including at least one Winchester 1895 in .405 Win.) and obsolete military arms all went into storage. Thankfully, it’s pretty dry there. That’s where they remained until Uli Wiegand of InterOrdnance and Royal Tiger Imports bought the lot, ranging from muzzleloaders to M1 carbines to guns furnished by Communist nations in the 1970s.There are early bolt-actions, as well as Fabrique Nationale Mausers with the Abyssinian crest. Guns left by the Italians, who occupied Ethiopia from 1935 to 1941, include just about every model of Carcano. Mausers bought before or given to Ethiopia after World War II are joined by lots of Lee-Enfields. Did I mention there are a lot of Lee-Enfields?
These guns, in both variety and quantity, are unlike anything we’ve seen in surplus imports for decades—with the International Military Antiques acquisition of the contents of the armory in Nepal being the closest thing in recent memory.
Original source here.
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