Samuel Cummings

Samuel Cummings, (February 7, 1927 – April 29, 1998) was an American small arms dealer. He founded the International Armament Corporation (also known as Interarms or Interarmco) in 1953, a company which came to dominate the free world market in private arms sales. He died on April 29, 1998, in Monaco after a series of strokes. Biography Cummings was born in Philadelphia and became interested in weapons after acquiring a Maxim gun from a disused American Legion hall at the age of five. Cummings became a US Army weapons specialist at Fort Lee, Virginia, after World War II. Following his military discharge he attended George Washington University on the GI Bill, where he was recruited in 1950 by the Central Intelligence Agency as a weapons expert. Cummings then toured Europe, where he bought large quantities of surplus World War II weapons for both Hollywood productions and the Taiwan government During this time he was also called upon to identify captured weapons in the Korean War. In 1953 Cummings set up Interarmco in Alexandria, Virginia, with a warehouse in Manchester, England, and other international locations to capitalize on the vast stores of postwar arms and ammunition. He used his contacts and expertise to acquire surplus weapons in large quantities to sell to various private and government buyers throughout the world.