Daewoo USAS-12 Compilation in Movies & TV

The Daewoo USAS-12 (Universal Sporting Automatic Shotgun) is based on Maxwell Atchisson's 1972 design of the AA-12 assault shotgun. In 1989, Gilbert Equipment Co. (USA) wanted to produce an Atchisson of its own. Since Gilbert had no manufacturing capabilities, it looked elsewhere for possible manufacturers. The only maker that agreed to produce the weapon was a South Korean company called Daewoo Precision Industries, part of the Daewoo conglomerate. They adapted the design to their manufacturing techniques, and mass production commenced in the early 1990s and continues to this day.

The USAS-12 in semi automatic form was available through regular chains of commerce until 1993, when then President Bill Clinton, at the behest of a gun control group (Handgun Control, Inc.), directed then Secretary of the Treasury Lloyd Bentsen to declare three specific self loading shotguns to be destructive devices under an obscure portion of the Federal Code, which allowed the Head of the Treasury Dept. to declare any weapon over .50 Caliber to be declared a destructive device by decree. The three banned shotguns were (a) the SWD/Cobray Streetsweeper, the (b) the Armsel Striker-12 shotgun and the (c) Semi automatic USAS-12. The gun control group also requested that the pump action Mossberg 500 also be banned (due to the "frightening design" of the Mossberg 500 bullpup) but Bentsen refused. It is ironic that the full auto USAS-12 shotguns were still available to Title II approved owners and dealers with no additional paperwork required, but the Semi automatic version required a 'Destructive Device' permit from the ATF to possess and transfer. Once a shotgun like the USAS-12 was 'legally a Destructive Device' the ATF restricted import of complete guns and replacement parts based on regulations from the Gun Control Act of 1968.