At the 2026 National Rifle Association Annual Meeting I had a chance to interview Eric Wesson of Wesson family fame. The interview was conducted through my participation in the Voices of the Second Amendment — made possible by Beretta Holding.
Wesson is the grandson of firearm maker and designer Dan Wesson. Daniel Baird Wesson — or D.B. as Eric calls him — is his third great-grandfather. During this interview, Wesson talks about the Wesson family, Dan Wesson’s history, and much more.
Portions of this interview have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Petrolino: Today I’m at the NRA Annual Meeting 2026 and I’m part of the Voices of the Second Amendment, brought to you by Beretta Holding. And I have with me today a very special guest, Eric Wesson. Eric, welcome. How are you today?
Wesson: Doing well, John. Thank you for having me.
Petrolino: You have a very distinct name. Can you tell me about that, and who are you? Where do you come from, and where did you grow up? You’re from New England, and tell me all about you.
Wesson: Well, born and raised in Monson, Massachusetts … Wesson goes back a lot of lineage in years. The Wesson family goes back many years within this group.
Petrolino: You and I were kind of talking earlier about the great greats and all this. As far as your relationship with the Wesson family, Dan Wesson was your …
Wesson: Dan Wesson was my grandfather, the founder of Dan Wesson Arms in 1968, Monson, Massachusetts. But it goes further back from that, all the way to (Daniel Baird) “D.B.” Wesson, co-founder Smith & Wesson. He would have been my third great-grandfather.
Petrolino: Your third great-grandfather, okay? Your family’s been in firearms basically forever, and even though you yourself, you’re not involved in the firearm industry right now, as a profession, you’re involved in metal work, or?
Wesson: Our family business, when we departed the gun industry in 1994 and we, my family, including my brother, my sister, we partnered up, and we made precision sheet metal fabrication, sheet metal components, and we do that in Ayer, Massachusetts. We’ve been doing that for 32 years now since we left the industry back in 1994. We do that, and we had fun with it, and here we are today at the NRA show, and being re-introduced into the gun industry a little bit.
Petrolino: Right. I know that the Dan Wesson brand is now under CZ, right? That’s the umbrella?
Wesson: Yep, that’s correct. I can go back on the history of how that all happened.
Petrolino: Sure.
Wesson: Honestly, we can go back further back to the founding of Smith & Wesson. Before that, when D.B. — how he even came into the industry was actually from his older brother Edwin Wesson.
Petrolino: Okay.
Wesson: And Edwin Wesson, he was the gun maker of the family and Dan D.B. was his mentor. Unfortunately, Edwin had passed at a very young age, and so then at the time he was working on some things with Horace Smith.
Horace Smith, after Edwin passed, said, “Okay, Dan, what do you want to do? We, you know, we can go do something together.” History started with all that. Interesting story, they (formed) Volcanic — D.B., wanted a repeating firearm, a true repeating firearm with the cartridge, and made the improvements with a rim-fire. The whole Volcanic story, that most people know about — all in Winchester and the Henry, and pretty amazing story — how all that happened. Horace and D.B. go up to Springfield, Massachusetts, and decide to make a revolver.
Petrolino: Now, the Dan Wesson brand, they started out doing revolvers. Why don’t you talk about that transition, and now what, what the brand’s known for, when it was started, and what it’s known for today.
Wesson: How it started was when Bangor Punta took over ownership of Smith & Wesson in 1965, my grandfather was a superintendent, supervisor at the company at the time. He ended up getting forced out of the company. When he made a decision to start his own company, Dan Wesson Arms, that was in 1968. He did that in Monson, Massachusetts.
After he had passed suddenly in 1978 and then through transitions and went through a couple of ownerships, private equity groups over time, and then my family, my parents, along with Edward Arventos in 1991 purchased the assets out of bankruptcy court.
We did that between 91 and 94. Again, change of ownership. At that time it went to Bob Serva. Bob Serva picked up the ball and ran with it. So the company started with the revolver, and that’s what Dan Wesson Arms, to me, is known for.
Petrolino: Sure.
Wesson: A lot of innovation, just craftsmanship that my grandfather really hammered home with. He was very, very stubborn and very much a perfectionist, a machinist by trade, but still a gun guy, obviously, growing up with a name. But he was a worker. That whole transition from when Bob Serva, he’s the one that really introduced the 1911 platform — the revolver line … just went to the wayside. They had a bad fire at the factory, and trying to get that back, that part of it back up, it was a huge undertaking.
Now you have CZ. A lot of people don’t realize this, but CZ purchased the company back in 2005. They’ve been around a long time. They picked up the ball and they carry on the same traditions — the craftsmanship, the heritage, the legacy — and they obviously appreciated that. They continued that.
Petrolino: I heard that you have kind of an amateur — I’m sure it’s not an amateur — but you have a museum in your basement at home? Can you talk to me a little bit about what you have going on there, because I heard some interesting stories about this.
Wesson: How it started was growing up as a Wesson, you have a certain — obviously — respect for the name. You have…what’s the word I’m looking for? Responsibility, if you will, to carry that name. Over the years, I’ve always been the family historian, and asked a lot of questions of family members, trying to preserve history. I did it, honestly, to preserve the history for the family.
(We’re) a pretty private family. Up until recently, I think only two people outside of my family have actually seen my collection, my museum, if you will. I did it to preserve it for the kids, both my kids, Morgan and my son Daniel, another Dan Wesson — carry on the name and the tradition. They’re both shooters and they’re both gun people. It’s fun they’re here with us today at the NRA show, which is great. They’re getting to experience a lot of this.
The museum, it’s just something that is a passion of mine that I’ve done. When my grandfather passed away in 1978 he passed away the day after Thanksgiving, and the next day, my grandfather’s partners called my father up and said, “We want you to come and clean out your father’s office. We don’t want to see it when we come into work on Monday.” It’s really a sad story, in essence — but for a good reason, though. My father went in, cleaned out his office, brought it all home, stuffed it up in the attic. It was off limits for us kids growing up. It wasn’t until about 10 years ago that I was actually given the opportunity to go start looking at some of it.
My father’s still with us today. He’s 83, God bless his soul, and he says “hi” to everybody. I’ve been able to pick his brain over the last 10 years about certain things that I wouldn’t necessarily know about, but he would. A lot of times, as I’m going through this — I call it content — I ask, “Hey, Dad, what’s this?” You get the idea. A lot of times, I don’t know what it is at the time, but I’ll go back to it and see something, connect the dots, if you will.
I put a lot of this stuff up on the walls, I’ve made a lot of display cases, I’ve labeled everything to the best of my ability, and it’s been fun. It’s a passion, I guess, right? It’s what we do. Everybody in this room — the history and the shooting, and it’s just a passion, and it’s what we have to do.
Petrolino: You mentioned your children that are here with you, Dan and Morgan. I think I heard a story about a bassinet. Is there a bassinet that sticks out that you want to talk about?
Wesson: There’s a lot of history in the museum, if you will. It’s not just all gun-related. There’s a lot of media print, old advertisements, stuff like that, but personal items too.
The bassinet story is … every Wesson has been in this bassinet through the whole lineage, from D.B. down on to today, and including both my kids, Morgan and Daniel, and hopefully their kids someday too will be in it.
Petrolino: It’s kind of the Wessoninet?
Wesson: The Wessoninet, yeah.
Petrolino: Now that you’ve been getting more and more involved and engaged with CZ, and kind of getting back into the fold, and you’re bringing a wealth of information and knowledge as well, what are your plans? What are you looking to do?
Wesson: You know (I’m staying) open-minded, really. How that relationship started was with, (I) got a phone call from Tom Taylor a little less than a year ago. He came on board with CZ as the (chief marketing officer) and he had a lot of questions about the history, the legacy, and the heritage of the brand. There’s a lot of, I wouldn’t call it misinformation, just unknown information out there, and so he reached out to the family, looking to connect some of those dots. I took that phone call and we started a conversation.
I was explaining to him what I had with the museum and he chuckled, (and said), “Yeah, you know, I’ve seen some people’s museums before.” … I sent them some pictures of my museum, and he said, “I’ll be there in two weeks with a film crew.” … Sure enough, two weeks later they show up with like eight people at my house and we basically turned on the camera for — like we are today — and he asked a lot of questions. I tried filling a lot of those gaps, and since then they’ve produced a video, a couple short videos and a longer video.
I think what it does is it really fills in a lot of the gaps in the history, and I think it tells more of the story that a lot of people just didn’t understand. I think it just connects those dots. That’s how that relationship started.
When we did the video, Tom said, I’d really like you guys to come to the SHOT Show. We took him up on that offer, and we went out to the SHOT Show .. The whole relationship’s been developing. They’ve really been open arms with it and they really appreciate the heritage aspect of it and just knowing the DNA of the name and the brand.
Petrolino: I think this is iconic Americana. There’s no doubt about it, that this is history, and very important history. It’s not just — it’s like you said, it’s not just firearms, but it’s what those firearms represent, and what that whole entire lineage represents. The fact that you guys are kind of dusting yourself off and coming out of the mothballs, so to say, I think this is fantastic.
Now, do you have anything you are working on? A book? Are you working on a memoir? What is, what is Eric working on?
Wesson: Well, right now, I’m just focusing, you know, looking at retirement in the somewhat near future, and I’ve been putting, I’ve been wanting to do a book, and over the last 10 or so years, you know, creating the museum and looking at content and stuff like that, I’ve been putting stuff aside that my intent is to do a book at some point, and then just continue telling them that story, and then sharing a lot of the pieces I’ve been able to find, and just share. I’d like to share that stuff with the world because there’s a lot to share, and I think a lot of people might be interested. I’d be interested if I was on the receiving end, so I’d like to share that.
Petrolino: Absolutely. Is there anything now you’re obviously talking more and more with CZ? You’re getting very close with them, especially Tom Taylor. Tom Taylor is a friend and a colleague of mine. Is there anything that they have going on that you’re super excited about that you can talk about?
Wesson: Nothing I can talk about, but I can tell you the things that I’ve been included in, and the conversations I’ve been included in. Yeah, there’s just some really exciting stuff coming up this year. You’re gonna see some really, really innovative ideas being released. If I was to put a time frame on it, would be probably SHOT Show time, or maybe a little bit before, maybe a little after next year.
Petrolino: Okay. Awesome,
Wesson: But very innovative. It’s going to be very game-changing. I know that’s a cliche word, but I think it’ll be very eye-opening for a lot of people.
Petrolino: What’s what’s your overall message to the American gun owners from your perspective, from where you’re sitting? What is your message?
Wesson: Oh, that’s a good question. I don’t know if I have a specific message, per se, but we’re all in this together, right? You know, this pro-2A, right? It’s about bringing up the youth. For me, the gun industry has always had that – I’m not going to call it a void, but a challenge, if you will. Bringing up the youth, make sure we keep the youth involved. I think that message needs to be really portrayed here, that continue that, you know, we don’t want it to be an old man’s group, right? We want to keep promoting the youth and encouraging them; gun safety, gun training, and then teaching the history. I think the history of the industry is important, and really sharing that, and how we became who we are.
Petrolino: Absolutely. I know you’re not really completely in this world with both feet yet, but it looks like you’re getting there. Are there any socials or anything that you want to plug? Like, where do you want to direct people to for information, just to CZ?
Wesson: You got Dan Wesson Firearms, you got CZ USA, either of those, you know, people go on the social medias, you know, YouTube, I think there’s a YouTube channel now, for you know the Facebook and Instagram stuff, but yeah, you can go on the information, go on the websites, www.DanWessonFirearms.com but there’s all sorts of information on there, they just did a big big brand relaunch on the website, it came out beautiful, it really put a lot of emphasis on the four pillars of Dan Wesson. You got the heritage and let you know, craftsmanship, precision, and…innovation.
Petrolino: There you go. You got it.
Wesson: Why would I forget that one? But you know the innovation is the staple of the Dan Wesson brand, for sure. You know, my grandfather was so far ahead of his time, whether the interchangeable barrel systems, and a lot of the old timers out there, they’ll remember that. Or you know, the younger generation, they, you know, their uncle’s guns that got handed down to them, but the old Dan Weston revolvers, they’re the most accurate, awesome handguns ever made, in my opinion. Well, I’m a little biased.
Petrolino: Yeah, for sure. And you are a gun guy, right?
Wesson: I am a gun guy.
Petrolino: Perfect. Well, Eric, I really appreciate your time today. Thank you so much for stopping to talk with me, and hopefully we can do this again soon.
Wesson: And John, I really appreciate having you. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Bye.