Type Private Founded 1950s Owner Umarex | Industry Arms industry Products Firearms, weapons Website www.roehm-waffen.de | |
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Röhm Gesellschaft, often referred as simply RG, is a German brand of firearms and related shooting equipment. RG developed as a diversification of Röhm GmbH in the 1950s. Following 1968, a US division, RG Industries was established in Miami and lasted until 1986. In 2010, the RG brand was acquired by UMAREX GmbH & Co. KG.
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History
In the early 1950s Röhm GmbH of Sontheim/Brenz, which was traditionally focused on the production of chucking tools, diversified its product line and began to produce gas alarm guns, flare guns and handguns. Röhm's product line of firearms was primarily established under the brand name RG.
Following, and perhaps due to, the limitations on the importation of small pistols imposed by the 1968 Gun Control Act, RG established a factory in Miami in the 1970s under the name RG Industries. The Miami factory produced revolvers, automatic pistols, and derringers in small calibres such as .22 LR, .25 ACP, .32 S&W, and .38 Special. The Miami factory ceased operations in 1986.
In 2010 the management of Röhm GmbH decided to sell the complete manufacture of firearms to the UMAREX GmbH & Co. KG of Arnsberg and to refocus on its core market of chucking tools.
Litigation
Police Officer Thomas Delahanty was shot by John Hinckley, Jr. with a Röhm revolver during his failed assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan (1981). Delahanty later sued Röhm with the argument that small, cheap guns have no purpose except for crime, and thus that the company should be held responsible. The suit was subsequently rejected by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in a suit that has served as case law for other similar product liability cases.
In 1985, Kelley vs. RG Industries was filed over a 1982 shooting in which Kelley, a grocery clerk, was shot in the chest with an RG firearm.