Utah Westerners

September Announcement for the Utah Westerners

September 12, 2016 at 1:42 pm kenttschanz Leave a comment

John M. Browning:  American Inventor and Gun Maker

Presented by Lenny Rees

Historian, Browning and Winchester

John Moses Browning (1855-1926) was born in Ogden, Utah.  He was a firearms designer who developed military and civilian firearms, cartridges and gun mechanisms.  He started at age thirteen working in the gun shop of his father, Jonathan Browning (1805-1879).   He also developed automatic and semi-automatic firearms and had 128 gun patents.  He was awarded his first patent at the age of twenty-four.  Other significant contributions include: development of modern automatic and semi-automatic firearms; improvements to single-shot, lever-action and slide-action rifles and shotguns; development of the first autoloading pistols; development of the first gas-operated machine gun; as well as contributions to the development of automatic cannons.   Many of his guns were copied and are still manufactured.  Lenny Rees will be speaking on John M. Browning’s history, the company that he founded and his work in the firearm industry.

Lenny Rees retired from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources in December, 2007.  He started working for Browning as customer service agent in January, 2008.  In the spring of 2015 he accepted the position as historian for Browning and Winchester, where he enjoyed working in “dusty books and microfiche records.”  Rees lives in Roy, Utah and with his wife Sonja.  He has five daughters, fifteen grandchildren and seven grandchildren.

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