"The history of Parris Manufacturing Company is a very interesting one. At the start of World War II, when draftees by the thousands were being sent to the Army and Navy training camps, there were no rifles available for training purposes. Parris Manufacturing Company, already an expert in woodworking, was asked by the Department of Defense to make dummy training rifles for new recruits to use until real rifles could be made available. More than 2 million of these training rifles were made for the Army and Navy and the Company earned the coveted Army-Navy “E” Award for its contribution to the war effort. After the war was over, the company switched its production lines over to manufacturing toy rifles and pistols. These toy guns were made with the same skill and care that the company had used in making the Army and Navy training rifles. Parris Manufacturing Company officials did not want to manufacture only military toy guns, so they quickly added frontier and cowboy style rifles, pistols and pistol holster sets. All replicas in the company’s line are based on a rifle, musket or pistol that played an important part in our country’s history."
