Vytis and Vladas: The Post Soviet Guns of Lithuania
Firearms Innovation in newly independent countries in the face of potential aggression from your next-door neighbor is not new. During the Croatian War of Independence (1991-94), a small firm called IM Metal started making new design pistols for the Croatian army. This led eventually to the HS2000, which you may know better as the Springfield XD. In 1990, the small country of Lithuania broke away from the crumbling shell of the Soviet Union and reclaimed their lost independence and a few ugly but effective homegrown firearms may have helped keep it free.
Among these were the Vytis and the Vladas
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Room brooms, Lithuanian style
My family are pure Lithuanian, with grandparents migrating here in 1917, and my brother is a gun guy. Do you have any idea how I could go about finding him some kind of gun with visible Lithuanian markings? Cheers, Julie