The TEC-DC9's journey to America began with George Kellgren, a Swedish designer of military guns.
In the 1970s, South Africa's apartheid government was in the market for a new gun. It wanted something light and portable, yet capable of firing at machine-gun speed. Kellgren got a contract and designed a military submachine gun, akin to the Israeli Uzi, with a lightweight plastic stock. When South Africa failed to produce it, Kellgren began writing to firearms dealers in the United States, seeking a partner in the manufacturing business. He found one in Miami.
Carlos Garcia, a young man who had fled Cuba with his family, ran a small store in the city's Little Havana neighborhood called Garcia's National Guns. Garcia had no gunmanufacturing experience. But he had a knack for marketing, and he liked the paramilitary look of the handgun Kellgren sketched.
Together they formed Interdynamics Inc. in the early 1980s, producing their handgun and selling it at Garcia's store. They called it the KG-9 - K for Kellgren, G for Garcia - and described it as a weapon "combining the high capacity and controlled firepower of the military submachine gun with the legal status and light weight of a handgun.''
The KG-9 cost about $70 to produce. It was sold as a semiautomatic, firing one bullet with each squeeze of the trigger. But when federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents examined it, they found the KG-9 could easily be converted to a submachine gun, shooting a stream of bullets with a squeeze of the trigger.
The agency declared the KG-9 an illegal machine gun in 1982 and halted its production. Kellgren and Garcia then introduced the KG-99, a semiautomatic less readily turned into a machine gun. But they sold it with an "assault grip'' accessory designed for two-handed spray firing of a handgun with a 36-round ammunition magazine. Again, ATF stepped in. No assault grip on the KG-99.
In 1984, Kellgren left the business. Garcia's father entered, renaming the corporation Intratec Firearms and the KG-99 the TEC-9. Four years later, Carlos Garcia took over Intratec and created a new umbrella company, Navegar Inc.
Under his direction, Navegar became known for its provocative - some say reprehensible - promotion of Intratec's TEC-9s.
One ad referred to its "excellent resistance to fingerprints.'' Garcia later said that merely meant its finish would not rust from handling. Another ad featured a bikiniclad woman on her hands and knees, cradling an assault weapon. Another used a human head and heart as bull's-eyes, with gun smoke pouring from both.