There’s few names more ubiquitous than Wesson when it comes to firearms. I had a chat with Eric Wesson — the grandson of Dan Wesson — and he talks about everything Wesson.
While attending the 2026 National Rifle Association Annual Meeting, Wesson stopped by to discuss family history, Dan Wesson Arms, and of course Daniel Baird Wesson — whom Eric refers to as “D.B.” This interview was made possible by Beretta Holding, the sponsor of the Voices of the Second Amendment at the NRAAM.
When it comes to firearms and American history, the two are intertwined so closely. The United States would not be the United States as we know it — if at all — if it weren’t for the robust advancement in firearms technology. Ironically, the cradle of the industrial small arms race for much of our history has been in New England. Eric Wesson from the Wesson lineage holds more than the Wesson namesake, he’s an expert historian on the topic who was born and raised in Monson, Mass., the middle of New England.
Eric said that the family left the firearms industry in 1994, but recently they’re being slowly reintroduced into the fray. The story of the Wesson family dates back to Daniel Baird Wesson, who teamed with Horace Smith in creating the Smith and Wesson brand of firearms that we all know today.
“Edwin Wesson, he was the gun maker of the family and Dan, D.B., was his mentor,” said Eric. “Unfortunately, Edwin had passed at a very young age, and … at the time he was working on some things with Horace Smith.” It was then that Smith went to Daniel Baird and asked, “Okay, Dan, what do you want to do? We, you know, we can go do something together.”
Their first venture involved the pair forming Smith & Wesson Company. “D.B. wanted a repeating firearm, a true repeating firearm with the cartridge,” Eric explained. The company became Volcanic and was purchased by Oliver Winchester. Smith parted ways with Volcanic, leaving Norwich, Conn. and headed back to his native Bay State. Volcanic shortly fell into insolvency.
It was then that Horace Smith headed north to reteam with Daniel Baird Wesson in Springfield, Mass. Smith & Wesson Revolver Company was formed in 1856. The family stayed involved in the company until Eric’s grandfather, Dan Wesson, got pushed out.
“When Bangor Punta took over ownership of the Smith and Wesson in 1965, my grandfather was a superintendent, supervisor at the company at the time,” Eric said. “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.”
Dan Wesson passed away suddenly in 1978. A number of transitions and changes in ownership of Dan Wesson Arms occurred in the following decade. Eventually the company went from private equity groups and back to the Wesson family.
“My parents, along with Edward Arventos in 1991 purchased the assets out of bankruptcy court,” said Eric. “We did that between 91 and 94.” Arventos was a lifelong Wesson family friend. Eric said that he first worked with his uncle then his grandfather.
“Eddie stayed on with the company and was the EVP at the time Dan Wesson Arms filed for bankruptcy,” Eric explained in a followup via email. “Eddie approached my parents Seth and Carol in late 1990 to figure out how to get the company back into the family. Eddie was a partner and a big catalyst to make that happen.”
The Wesson family departed Dan Wesson Arms again in 1994. “At that time it went to Bob Serva,” said Eric. “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.”
Eric said that the company had a reputation for “a lot of innovation” and craftsmanship. These were qualities and ideals that Dan Wesson “hammered home” with the family. “He was very, very stubborn and very much a perfectionist, machinist by trade, but still a gun guy, obviously, growing up with a name,” said Eric. “But he was a worker.”
The transition from being known for revolvers to 1911s happened when Serva took over. Eric said the revolver line just went by the wayside. There also was a bad fire at the factory and trying to get that line back up was a huge undertaking.
“Now you have CZ. A lot of people don’t realize this, but CZ purchased the company back in 2005,” said Eric. “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.”
Something that Eric has is a bit of a treasure trove. In his basement, Eric made a sort of amateur museum.
“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,’” said Eric. “It’s really a sad story, and 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.”
For the past 10 or so years, Eric has been given access to the items. He’s been able to pick his father’s brain about the items and discuss Dan’s belongings. He said that he’s put a lot of the stuff on the walls, made display cases, and labeled everything.
“Over the years, I’ve always been the family historian, and asked a lot of questions of family members, trying to preserve history,” said Eric. “I did it, honestly, to preserve the history for the family.”
The family is fairly private and up until recently there were only two people outside the family who have seen the collection. How this treasure trove of Wesson artifacts came to light was through CZ’s then-new chief marketing officer, Tom Taylor. Eric said that Taylor called him last year and had a lot of questions about the history, legacy, and heritage of the Dan Wesson brand.
“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,’” said Eric. “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.”
Eric and his family have continued building a relationship with CZ. They got the opportunity to attend SHOT Show® earlier this year, and then of course the NRA Annual Meeting. “They’ve really been open arms with it and they really appreciate the heritage aspect of it,” Eric explained, “just knowing the DNA of the name and the brand.”
One of the items that the Wesson family museum has is a bassinet. When asked about it, Eric smiled and chuckled, “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.”
Eric explained that the bassinet has been in the Wesson family dating back to D.B. “Every Wesson has been in this bassinet through the whole lineage,” he said, “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.”
“It’s kind of the Wessoninet?” Eric was asked. “The Wessoninet, yeah,” he chuckled.
As for Eric and the Wesson family’s future with CZ and the Dan Wesson brand, he says they’re taking it as it comes. The family is staying open minded. Eric has been thinking about writing a book and/or memoir, his focus is retiring from the current company he’s built. It’s his goal though to continue telling the story of Dan Wesson Arms and the Wesson family.
“Sharing a lot of the pieces I’ve been able to find,” Eric said is his desire. “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, may or may not be interested. I’d be interested if I was on the receiving end, so I’d like to share that.”
The Dan Wesson Arms brand is owned by CZ-USA, under the Colt CZ Group SE. Dan Wesson firearms are still manufactured in the United States in Norwich, N.Y. It was great getting a chance to hear a sliver of the history of the Wesson family, about D.B. Wesson, and Dan Wesson — the man and the company. With Eric and his family coming back to the firearms community, we can only hope that we’ll be hearing more from him, his daughter Morgan, and son Dan.
If you’d like to tune into the full interview with Eric Wesson, you can do so HERE or check it out in the embed below.
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