The Franchi firm was eventually sold to SOCIMI of Milan, which filed for bankruptcy in 1993, leaving Franchi to come under the experienced leadership of the famed Beretta concern. Production of the series - handled by Luigi Franchi Development of Brescia, Italy (Franchi S.p.A), known for good quality shotguns - ran from 1979 to 2000 to which global operators became Austria, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and the United States. The SPAS-12 was specifically designed as a combat shotgun and anti-riot measure but eventually marketed as a sporting system to civilians. The SPAS-12 could, therefore, fire up to four rounds per second in the former mode, its dual-mode system managed by way of a two-position selector switch near the foregrip. The Franchi SPAS-12 was a semi-automatic, 12-gauge shotgun noted for its variable-mode firing method in which the weapon could be fired via a gas-operated, semi-automatic mode (featuring self-loading) or a manually-actuated, pump-action / slide-action system.
