The “Ring of Fire” Legacy

by GunsmithUSA Contributor John Siers

This article is probably going to be “politically incorrect” as far as most gunsmiths are concerned. I’m going to say some good words about a type of gun that most “gun experts” consider to be nothing but cheap trash and not worth the money. In my opinion, many of those “experts” are just repeating what others have said and probably haven’t really looked at the guns in question.

I’m talking about the “Ring of Fire” guns that are the subject of so much “trash talk” in the shooting community; but most of the people who are doing the talking know very little about them. Most gunsmiths have never worked on one because at standard gunsmith rates, the cost to do any kind of repair would be more than the gun is worth.

I have worked on a lot of these – Raven, Lorcin, Jennings, Bryco, Davis… I’ve seen them all. It started when I bought a “gunsmith bundle” from a local distributor, who probably got them from a police sale. I’m sure there’s a lot of them in the display cases of many urban pawn shops as well. They were the favorites of every punk who walked the streets years ago; but if the shady background doesn’t bother you, you can probably acquire them in various states of disrepair for around $25 per gun.

OK… they’re cheap, they’re ugly and clunky and they have a disreputable history. They have soft, squishy triggers and undersized magazines. Most of them have the old Euro-styled bottom-of-the-butt magazine release. They lack some of the features we expect to see in a gun, like a slide that locks open when the magazine is empty.

But seriously… when all is said and done, most of them are not bad guns. In good condition, they are as safe to shoot as any other gun. They were never intended to be long-range target shooters, nor were they expected to last a lifetime. They were developed in response to a market need for a cheap, basic gun that could be sold to customers of a certain demographic – specifically low-income urban dwellers who needed a gun for self-defense. Of course, they also attracted other buyers whose purpose was less honorable, but whatever the case they soon became the best-selling guns in America. To understand this, we need to look at a little bit of history; and that’s going to be the primary subject of this article.

In 1970, Southern California machinist George Jennings heard a pawn and gun shop owner complaining that inexpensive imported pistols were no longer available. The Gun Control Act of 1968 banned import of virtually all such guns, and no American manufacturers made comparable guns at competitive prices.

This led Jennings to start Raven Arms, producing a little .25 caliber striker-fired semiauto pistol known as the Raven P-25 and its nearly identical successor the MP-25 (see picture). The gun was very cheap to produce because its two major components – the frame and slide – were made of a zinc alloy called Zamak by an injection molding process that required very little machining. The Raven was a very simple design, consisting of just 27 parts, twelve of which were pins or springs.

Over the next twenty years, Raven sold over 2 million of these little guns. Ravens were never made in any caliber except .25 Auto and they were good, reliable guns. They also proved to be more durable than expected and many of them are still in service today. The only safety issue ever reported with the Raven involved guns with a damaged or modified sear (possibly the result of a botched “trigger job” – see my article on the Raven).

The success of Raven inspired others to follow. In 1978, George’s son Bruce Jennings parted company with his father and started is own company, Jennings Arms. That company began with .22 and .25 caliber guns of similar design to the Raven (also with Zamak frames and slides – see picture at left), but soon “scaled up” the designs to .380 caliber and eventually 9mm Luger.

In 1982, Raven’s former office manager Jim Davis started another company, Davis Industries and began producing semiauto pistols of similar design in .32 and .380 as well as a line of small, two-barrel “Derringer” style pistols in various calibers. The picture at right shows the Davis P-380. Again, the Davis semiauto pistols used Zamak frames and slides as well as the same basic operating mechanism as the original Raven.

Finally, in 1989 Jim Waldorf (a former school friend of Bruce Jennings) started Lorcin Engineering, producing a line of semiauto pistols like the one at left. These were also made of Zamak and shared many design features with the Raven, Jennings, and Davis guns. In 1993 alone, Lorcin sold almost 300,000 guns. Lorcins were made in .25, .380, and 9mm.

With Raven, Jennings, Davis and Lorcin all producing guns in Southern California, the “Ring of Fire” was complete. In 1985 Bruce Jennings had personal problems that cost him his Federal Firearms License and caused him to reorganize Jennings Arms as CalWestCo. The company was run by others with Bruce Jennings as a silent partner but continued to produce guns with the Jennings brand name. Plagued by lawsuits, CalWestCo declared bankruptcy in 1990; but Bruce reorganized the company again as Bryco Arms and continued to produce Jennings-branded guns.

In 1991 Raven’s original plant burned down and founder George Jennings retired. He divided Raven’s assets among several family members and former employees. They reorganized the company as Phoenix Arms and continued to produce the Raven MP-25 for several years.

By that time, all the “Ring of Fire” companies were having problems. Bryco, Davis, and Lorcin were all plagued by lawsuits, some of them “public nuisance” suits brought by California municipalities alleging that these cheap, readily available guns were responsible for increases in violent crime, gang activity and various other ills. There were also product liability suits alleging that the guns were unsafe. Phoenix was relatively untouched but scrapped the Raven design in favor of a new design of their own. It should be noted that, like the original Raven Arms (but unlikeBryco, Davis and Lorcin) Phoenix never attempted to “scale up” their design beyond .25 ACP caliber.

Lawsuits forced Lorcin to declare bankruptcy in 1996. The company tried to reorganize but was forced into bankruptcy again in 1998. Likewise, lawsuits forced Davis Industries to file for bankruptcy in 1999. Finally, Bryco closed its doors for good in 2003, the result of a $24 million judgement against the company in a single lawsuit involving a 7-year old boy accidentally shot by a 20-year old who was attempting to unload a Bryco 9mm pistol.

There are a lot of questions about the validity of the suits brought against these companies. Many allegations were made, but there was very little evidence that the guns in question were actually defective in design. From my own experience the most common issues with them result in failures to feed, fire, or eject. In other words, they usually “fail safe” and I’ve never seen one where I was concerned about accidental discharge (except one in which somebody had obviously tried to modify the sear). In addition, the long, heavy, squishy triggers make accidental trigger-pulls far less likely.

Many of the suits revolved around the documentation supplied with the gun and the question of whether the manufacturer had adequately warned users of the hazards involved. By today’s product liability standards, those questions were probably valid. Almost any tool or mechanical product sold today comes with documentation that begins with many pages of warnings about the hazards involved in careless or ignorant use.

In fact, the same gun designs are still being produced today under different names; but now they come with instruction manuals that are much more detailed in terms of safety warnings and safe use procedures. They also contain warning labels on the boxes and a few minor design changes to make them a bit more idiot-proof – with the understanding that there is no way to make any gun totally safe from careless use or misuse. For that matter, the same can be said of a chain saw, a microwave oven, or (especially) an automobile.

In any case, today’s manufacturers of the “Ring of Fire” gun designs have not experienced the legal problems of their predecessors. This is due to a combination of factors, not the least of which is that California – the venue for most of the original lawsuits – no longer allows sale of these guns. In addition, the implementation of the NICS system in 1998 made it much more difficult for criminals to obtain guns, no matter how cheap they were. Finally, the guns have been widely trashed by so-called “experts” and the demand for them has declined considerably.

But they are still being made. Phoenix is the only company still located in California that makes Zamak-framed pistols and they have obviously taken a few lessons from the fate of the Ring of Fire companies. Their HP series guns have built-in safety features to the point of hindering normal operation. For example, you can’t remove the magazine from a Phoenix without putting the safety selector in the “Safe” position, and once the magazine is out, you can’t move the safety to the “Fire” position until you insert a magazine. See my article on the Phoenix HP-25 for more details on that.

As for the others, the Davis designs have been subsequently produced by Cobra Enterprises of Utah. Cobra still supports the old CA-32 and CA-380 as well as the two-barrel derringer in several calibers; but for the most part they have moved on to newer designs such as the Patriot 9mm, .380, and .45 series, as well as the Shadow revolver line.

Which brings us to the final (or at least the most recent) chapter of the story. When Bryco finally went down in 2003, they sold their designs, tooling and equipment to Paul Jimenez, their former plant manager who established Jimenez Arms in 2004. Jimenez moved the company’s operations to Nevada in 2006 and set up shop in a more gun-friendly climate. He also took a lesson from some of the lawsuits and made a couple of simple, safety-related design changes. In addition, he had the documentation re-written to include the typical safety warnings up front with additional warnings on the outside of the box. Jimenez guns now come with a lifetime warranty, trigger lock, two magazines and a Cerakote finish  (in a variety of color combinations) that is better looking and more durable than their ancestors from twenty years ago.

For all that, the guns still use the injection-molded zinc alloy frames and slides. Is it as durable as steel? No, but it’s likely more durable than the plastic polymer frames in common use today. I find it curious to note that a couple of states – trying to ban the “Ring of Fire” guns without specifically naming them – passed legislation that prohibited guns with frames made of metal whose melting point was below that of steel. I doubt a modern polymer pistol would pass the melting point test, but the laws specifically reference metal-frame guns. If you live in one of those states, you can’t buy a Phoenix, Cobra, or Jimenez gun.

In any case, the guns are still out there, including the original Raven, Jennings, Lorcin and Davis models that have survived longer than the companies that produced them. Parts are still available from sources such as Numrich and the designs are simple (see picture). If you are a gunsmith, there’s almost nothing other than a damaged frame that can’t be fixed with very little effort. And there are even a few collectors out there who are willing to pay a moderate price for one in good condition.

So… the next time you see one lying neglected on a table at a gun show or in a pawn shop display case, take another look at it. What you’re seeing is a piece of history, an interesting experiment in gun design. And for very little money, you might be able to pick up a neat little shooter to tinker with or add to your gun collection.

As long as you don’t live in California, or one of those “melting point” states….