Smith & Wesson M76 Smith & Wesson M76 The Smith & Wesson M76 submachine gun was produced by Smith & Wesson from 1967 to 1974. It is an adaptation of the Swedish Carl Gustav m/45 with an open bolt design and fires 9x19mm Parabellum ammunition. In 1966, the Swedish government blocked the sale of firearms to the United States because it opposed the Vietnam War. This created a problem for the Navy SEAL Teams which were using Swedish-made m/45 submachine guns in covert operations in Southeast Asia. Noting this, Smith & Wesson began to produce the M76 (an m/45 clone), which was ready for
Smith & Wesson a new facility and began experimenting with a new cartridge design more suitable than the .22 Short that it had been using. At the same time, the company's design was being infringed upon by other manufacturers which led to numerous lawsuits filed by Rollin White. In many of these instances part of the restitution came in the form of the offender being forced to stamp "Manufactured for Smith & Wesson" on the revolvers in question. White's vigorous defense of his patent caused a problem for armsmakers in the United States at the time as they could not manufacture cartridge revolvers.