Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush on Tuesday shared a photo on Twitter displaying a picture of a handgun under the one-word caption "America." The pistol, inscribed with his name, was manufactured by a US company whose parent European firm made firearms for Nazi troops.
The former Florida governor posted the photo after visiting the FN America gun manufacturing plant in Columbia, South Carolina. The company is a subsidiary of FN Herstal, a foreign corporation based in Belgium, which was known as Fabrique Nationale d'Armes de Guerre for many years and produced thousands of pistols carried by Nazi officers and pilots.
Today, FN Herstal owns the U.S. Repeating Arms Company and supplies weaponry to the U.S. military, including the popular M4 carbine as well as the M240 machine gun and the MK19 automatic grenade launcher.
As quoted by ABC News, Bush said he was unaware of the company’s past and wanted to promote an American manufacturing facility.
“The purpose was we went to a gun manufacturing facility where lots of jobs are created, high-wage jobs. And I received a gun and I was honored to have it,” said Bush.