I own a Franchi SPAS-12. As anyone who owns one will tell you, they are more complicated than necessary. The controls really are just a mixture of Remington 870 and AR-15 technology. Franchi designed this shotgun as an automatic police shotgun for slugs and buck, that could be quickly switched to manual mode for less lethal types of rounds that would be unable to operate the action. The manual mode is kind of clunky, and just plain BIG. Very high maintenance, but loads of fun to shoot. I just ordered 500 virgin hulls and an 18 cavity 00 buckshot mould to keep it fed.