ASP pistol

The ASP is a custom-made pistol designed and built by Paris Theodore (owner of Seventrees, Ltd., a custom gun leather shop in New York City) from the early 1970s to 1987. The ASP was based on the Smith & Wesson Model 39 pistol. The ASP featured clear Lexan grips allowing the shooter to see how much ammunition is left, a rounded hammer, hooked trigger guard, and no front sight. The ASP was responsible for later innovations made in the development of concealable handguns.^[2]

The ASP was a reworked Smith & Wesson Model 39 or 39-2, employing a shortened slide, a fixed bushing (in lieu of the Smith & Wesson designed collet bushing); the unique Guttersnipe sight system, clear Lexan grip-panels, a fully ramped and throated shortened barrel, and a smoothed and radiused profile to ensure no risk of snagging on the draw.^[3]

The fixed bushing was tightly fitted to the shortened barrel and dry-lubricated by durable Teflon-S, which was applied to all components of the pistol, except for the clear Lexan grip panels. The unique sighting system, referred to as the "Guttersnipe", was a narrowing U-channel with fluorescent yellow panels that would form three triangles, all pointed at the target when the sight was properly aligned.^[3]

Checkering was kept to a minimum, and reserved for the frontstrap and backstrap, as opposed to the grip panels, which were smooth to prevent the drawing hand from catching prematurely on draw, thereby minimizing the risk of any misalignment of the pistol during presentation, aiming, and firing.

The ASP was made in either right-handed, or left-handed models, as the extended trigger guard (which included a recurved hook for the index finger of the supporting hand, one of the earliest known instances of such a feature) was cut away on the side of the strong-sided hand (which would depend on the handedness of the individual using the pistol).^[2]

Included with the gun was a patented double magazine pouch which used a magnet to hold the spare magazines in place. The cost for the complete ASP modification package on a customer-supplied handgun was $475, and was done by a subsidiary company, Armament Systems and Procedures, Inc.^[4]

La producción de fundas y portacargadores para la ASP se subcontrató a Ken Null, quien aún produce esos diseños. Theodore cesó la producción de la ASP en 1987. ^{[ 5 ]}

En 1976, un armero de Cleveland , Ohio, llamado Charles Kelsey, encargó una pistola ASP, pero nunca la recibió. Su experiencia lo llevó a desarrollar una versión mejorada de la ASP. Trabajando con el instructor de armas de fuego Ken Hackathorn, desarrolló la pistola Devel. ^{[ 2 ]}

Las cachas de madera presentaban una inserción transparente de Lexan, que permitía al tirador ver la cantidad de cartuchos en el cargador. Las pistolas tenían un acabado de níquel químico y miras tradicionales. Kelsey envió una muestra a Smith & Wesson para negociar un acuerdo de producción en serie. Si bien no se llegó a un acuerdo, varias de las mejoras de Kelsey se incorporaron a la S&W 3913. ^{[ 2 ]}

El novelista John Gardner , sucesor de Ian Fleming como autor de las novelas de James Bond , eligió la ASP como el arma principal que James Bond usaría en el resto de las novelas de la saga . Esta arma también sirve como arma de mano de Bond en el cómic de 1989 Permission to Die .

La pistola ASP es un arma utilizable en Call of Duty: Black Ops . ^{[ 6 ]}