Cummings was born in
Philadelphia and became interested in weapons after acquiring a
Maxim gun from a disused
American Legion hall at the age of five. Cummings became a
US Army weapons specialist at
Fort Lee, Virginia, after
World War II. Following his military discharge he attended
George Washington University on the
GI Bill, where he was recruited in 1950 by the
Central Intelligence Agency as a weapons expert. Cummings then toured Europe, where he bought large quantities of surplus World War II weapons for both
Hollywood productions and the
Taiwan government These included
.45 ACP Ballester-Molina pistols purchased from Argentina for
British covert operations. During this time he was also called upon to identify captured weapons in the
Korean War. In 1953 Cummings set up Interarmco in
Alexandria, Virginia, with a warehouse in
Manchester, England, and other international locations to capitalize on the vast stores of postwar arms and ammunition. He used his contacts and expertise to acquire surplus weapons in large quantities to sell to various private and government buyers throughout the world. Interarmco was owned by the Central Intelligence Agency when Cummings took control, but he bought out the CIA interest and became sole owner in 1958. In the 1950s and 1960s, Interarmco flooded the American market with military firearms, catering to souvenir-hungry GIs and sportsmen, and drastically undercutting domestic sporting-arms manufacturers. At the same time, Cummings became an export sales agent for various small arms manufacturers. Interarmco was an original exclusive agent for
ArmaLite, and Cummings personally demonstrated its revolutionary
AR-10 selective-fire rifle to various nations, including Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. In June 1959, the rebels invaded the Dominican Republic in a combined air/sea operation. Betrayed by local residents, the seaborne rebel forces (led by Cuban officers), were surprised at the water's edge; those dropping via parachute were hunted down in the following days by the Dominican army. When Cummings arrived in the Dominican Republic that same month to discuss the subject of arms sales with the nation's arms procurement officer, an enraged Trujillo stormed into the room carrying an AR-10 rifle taken off the body of a dead insurgent, demanding to know why Cummings had supplied guns to his enemies. Interarms was later acquired by the
High Standard Manufacturing Company. ==In popular culture==