Hunting and Weapons: Brescia, about 1200 Zastava model M76 carbines were seized throughout Italy as they were deemed not to comply with national regulations on firearms.
The Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Brescia ordered the seizure of all Zastava model M76 semiautomatic rifles in 8 mm Mauser caliber (8 × 57 JS); the seizure decree concerns all the weapons of this particular model present on the National Territory and is aimed at ascertaining whether these rifles have undergone the necessary changes to the trigger mechanism suitable for definitively eliminating their ability to fire in burst mode. Apparently, in fact, despite the M76 model M8 rifles of the Zastava cal. 95 Mauser are cataloged in Italy as common firearms, they have the ability to fire in burst mode without modifications of any kind but simply by positioning the lever of the firing selector in a intermediate position between that for safety and that for normal single-shot shooting. The seizure ordered by the Brescia Public Prosecutor is part of an investigation concerning the importation of war weapons involving XNUMX provinces, among which the Province of Udine stands out, where twenty-seven were the rifles to be withdrawn from the market for subsequent seizure.
The investigation started with a report from the National Test Bench which, during the test required by law following the import, found that three examples of the Zastava M76 rifle in 8 mm Mauser caliber were capable of firing in bursts, thus returning in the cataloging of war weapons whose sale is prohibited in Italy. The same investigations carried out for the Zastava M76 rifles in .308 Winchester caliber that arrived in Italy in recent years did not reveal any anomalies.
(23 October 2014)
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