The top carbine is the first one of these that I ever acquired. It was made in 1943 by the Columbus, OH Inland Manufacturing Division of General Motors. Back then, carbines were cheap and I used to carry it as my backpacking rifle.
The one on the center of the rack was also made by General Motors, although that one came from the Saginaw Steering Gear plant in Flint, MI. I got this one directly from the US Government courtesy of the Civilian Marksmanship Program. It appears to have been arsenal rebuilt following the Korean War and put into storage. I had the privilege of removing it from the vacuum-wrap myself. It's pristine.
The one on the bottom was another CMP acquisition and like the Saginaw gun, it went from rebuild to storage and then right to me. It was made by the Underwood-Elliot-Fisher Typewriter Company and like the Saginaw gun, appears unfired since the rebuild.
During World War Two, six million of these handy pistol-caliber rifles were made by nine companies: Rock-Ola Music Corporation, Standard Products, International Business Machines (IBM), Quality Hardware, National Postal Meter, Underwood-Elliot-Fisher, Winchester, General Motors Inland, and Saginaw Steering Gear. They were made as semi-automatic firearms but some were modified to fire fully automatic and redesignated as the M2 Carbine. I had one of these until last year but sold it to pay for a new roof for my house. It was a fun little sucker to shoot but I wasn't keen on the fact that the barrel got as hot as it did as fast as it did. That might be fine for a military gun that can go back to an armory for a re-barrel after it burns out but as a collectible... no thanks. I'll stick with my Uzi, which has a heavier barrel that pops right out for a quick change.
Still, you can't help but love a 5.5lb rifle that's shorter than many .22 rifles and packs the punch of a .357 magnum. Rumor has it that the CMP will be releasing more of these in a few months and I'm already saving up for one or two more. One can never have too many carbines.
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