Ruger MP9

The Ruger MP9 is a 9x19mm Parabellum submachine gun, also described as a machine pistol, that Sturm, Ruger and Company added to its catalog in 1995. It was designed by Uziel Gal, the designer of the Uzi, who set out to improve on his earlier design in the late 1980s, after Ruger had bought the rights to the Uzi. Working with Ruger, Gal built the lower receiver, the pistol grip and the folding butt-stock hinge from the polymer Zytel, and gave the gun a stainless-steel receiver with a top-mounted cocking handle, a hammer-fired closed-bolt blowback action, a firing-pin block against discharge when dropped, and a detachable barrel cushioned by a spring. A three-position lever combines the safety and the fire selector for safe, semi-automatic and automatic fire, and the 32-round magazine can be emptied in about three seconds. The gun was meant for American government agents in close-quarters defense but was not adopted, and it was not a success. It is reported in use during the Burundian Civil War.