Marlin Firearms Co., formerly of North Haven, Connecticut, is a manufacturer of high power, center fire, lever action, bolt-action, and .22 caliber rimfire rifles. In the past, the company made shotguns, derringers and revolvers. Marlin owned the firearm manufacturer H & R Firearms. In 2007, Remington Arms, part of the Freedom Group acquired Marlin Firearms.  Remington currently produces Marlin brand firearms at its Kentucky and New York manufacturing facilities.  John M. Marlin was born in Connecticut in 1836, and served his apprenticeship as a tool and die maker. During the Civil War, he worked at the Colt plant in Hartford, and in 1870 hung out his sign on State Street, New Haven, to start manufacturing his own line of revolvers and derringers. The outstanding team of inventors he was able to attract developed breakthrough and enduring models, such as the Model 1891 and 1893 rifles. Updated as Models 39 and 336 respectively, they are the oldest sporting shoulder arm models still in current production by their original maker. The lever action 22 repeater (now Model 39) was the favorite of many exhibition shooters, including Annie Oakley. When John Marlin died in 1901, his two sons took over the business and began a diversification program. In 1915 during World War I, a New York syndicate bought the company and renamed it the Marlin Rockwell Corporation. Marlin became one of the largest machine gun producers in the world for the US and its Allies, building the M1895 Colt-Browning machine gun and a later variant called the "Marlin gun". In 1917 Marlin Rockwell bought out the Hopkins & Allen Arms Company to promote an expanded line of firearms and improve the image of the Marlin company as makers of "sporting arms".  The sporting firearms part of the business became a new corporation, which staggered until 1923, when it went on the auction block. Courtesy Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlin_Firearms)

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