The Baby Browning 6.35 mm: Made in Belgium, this is a great gun for concealed carry. It is very accurate at distances under 25 ft. and totally reliable in my experience. The 1968 Gun Control Act (signed by President Johnson on October 22, 1968 in the wake of the King and Kennedy assassinations) prohibited the importation of these guns. With the American market cut-off, F.N. ceased production the following year (1969). 

History:

My gun was manufactured and imported in 1968. It was purchased new for $50, by the father of one of my friends, who was a gun dealer at the time. He put the gun in his safe, still in the wax paper and pouch where it stayed for thirty years untouched and still unfired. In 1998, I purchased this Baby Browning for $400 from my friend's father.

Let's look at the transaction from an "investment" point of view. My friend's father doubled his money every ten years on the gun, i.e., 1968=$50, 1978=$100, 1988=$200 and finally 1998=$400 when he sold the investment to me. Do I think it will double in value by 2008? I think so. I have seen one like mine sell for $750 on gunbroker.com recently. But then again, if we drew a graph of the value over the last thirty years, it would certainly have ups and downs and not just be a straight line constantly moving upward. Well, it's 2008 and my question has been answered. I was offered $800 for the Baby, and I turned it down.

Although I'm not into gun collecting as an investment, I do like to collect guns that I believe will hold their value or increase in value. I look for value in everything I purchase, cars, musical instruments, down to my wrist watch. My friend's father was able to put this gun in a safe and leave it alone for thirty years, (possibly because he was a gun dealer and had plenty of other guns to keep him busy)!

As you can see, I have the gun out on the kitchen counter taking pictures, holstering it and even loading the magazine and carrying it on certain occasions. I have resisted the temptation to fire it, but only by buying a used blue gun of this same model to practice with.

The Browning 6.35mm (or .25 caliber to us Americans) was manufactured by Fabrique Nationale (F.N.) in Belgium. John Browning had contracts with Colt and F.N. and this is why the Baby Browning was not imported to the U.S. until 1954, even though it had been in production for twenty-five years or so. Colt stopped producing the vest pocket .25 pistols and got out of that market in 1953.

Many gun enthusiasts will laugh at the mention of a .25 caliber gun and call them a mouse gun. This little gun earned my respect and the respect of a lot of others through it's service to the French Resistance during WWII. It saved many lives. This gun went places, undetected, where a larger gun could not have gone. I've read more than one story of this gun being concealed inside cigarette packs.