4 Folding submachine guns we’d love to get our hands on

By Chris Eger

The ARES/Warin folding submachine gun or “stealth gun” makes a cameo appearance in Robocop II.
Submachine guns have been around for the better part of a century. They are the intermediate go-to firearm between a handgun and a carbine and have multiple niche uses in military, law enforcement and personal defense scenarios.
One isolated branch of subgun development however has been in the arena of the inconspicuous folding submachine gun — and it is indeed one weird branch of firearms.
1. The ARES/Warin Stealth Gun
In the mid-1970s, Francis J Warin hit upon an idea for what he called a ‘stealth gun’ that could be deployed by a seemingly unarmed individual. Folding in half to form a non-threatening box shape, it could be unfolded to expose a hidden submachine gun. Warin patented his ideas and approached ARES to produce the weapon.
ARES/Warin Stealth Gun, folded and unfolded.
Eugene Stoner, father of the M-16, was president of ARES at the time and he is often mistakenly credited with the weapon’s design. Maybe Warin would be glad he wasn’t, as the weapon was a non-starter. It was rather complicated with a multi-part bolt. It could fire semi-auto, full-auto at 650-rounds per minute, or in a three-round burst. It

Source: Guns.com