Guardia Nacional (GN) infantry companies at the mid-1920s was the Krag–Jørgensen US M1896/98 .30-40 (7.62 mm) bolt-action rifle, soon superseded by the Springfield US M1903 .30-06 (7.62×63mm). The squad weapon was the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) M1918A2 US .30-06 (7.62×63mm) light machine gun – the GN also appears to have received the American-made version of the famed World War I British-made Lewis gun .303 (7.7mm), the Savage Model 1917 LMG chambered for the US .30-06 (7.62×63mm) cartridge –, with the company weapons being the Colt-Browning M1895 "potato digger" .30-06 medium machine gun and the US M1917A1 .30-06 Browning water-cooled medium machine gun. Officers and NCOs received the Thompson M1928A1 US .45 caliber (11.4mm) submachine gun, as well as the Colt M1911A1 .45 caliber (11.4mm) semi-automatic pistol as personal sidearm. A small number of ZB vz. 30 light machine guns were acquired from Czechoslovakia in 1937 for evaluation, but they were never adopted as standard weapons by the GN. In the 1940s–1950s, the GN received surplus American infantry weapons of World War II/Korean War-vintage – M1/M2 US .30 carbines (7.62×33mm) and M1 Garand US .30-06 (7.62×63mm) semi-automatic rifles replaced the earlier bolt-action Springfields, with Thompson M1A1 and M3 "Grease Gun" submachine gun models in US .45 caliber (11.4mm) replacing the older Thompson M1928A1 model. Although the popular Colt pistol was retained, Colt Cobra .38 Special snub-nose revolvers, Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolvers and Smith & Wesson Model 15 revolvers in .38 Special were also adopted. Medium and heavy machine guns, in the form of the M1919A4 US .30-06 Browning (7.62×63mm) – or its M1919A6 light machine gun version – and the larger M2HB .50 Browning (12.7×99mm) were added to the Guardia's arsenal, replacing the ageing M1895 and M1917A1 water-cooled medium machine guns. Assault rifles began to be adopted towards the end of the 1960s, though they never displaced entirely the earlier weaponry, such as the Garand rifle which remained the weapon of choice for soldiers serving in the Guardia's infamous firing squads and the security companies, who employed it to disperse demonstrations. Nevertheless, by 1978–79 most GN infantry formations had either the Belgian FN FAL (or its Israeli version, the lightened ROMAT) 7.62×51mm NATO or US M16A1 5.56×45mm assault rifles, with elite units receiving the Israeli-made IMI Galil SAR and ARM variants in both 5.56×45mm and 7.62×51mm which was adopted in the mid-1970s. At squad level, the Belgium-made FN MAG