On the production floor of Beretta USA sits a hulking new barrel-making machine ready to churn out the next object of obsession in America's love-hate relationship with guns: a civilian version of a machine gun designed for special operations forces and popularized in the video game Call of Duty.
Beretta, the nearly 500-year-old family-owned company that made one of James Bond's firearms, has already invested more than $1 million in the machine and has planned to expand its plant further in Prince George's County to ramp up production.
But under an assault-weapons ban that advanced late last week in the Maryland General Assembly, experts say the gun would be illegal in the state where it is produced.
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