That sounds like the accurate description, an economical pack rifle.
Here is some interesting information some individual posted about Firearms Intl. Corp., Washington D.C.
http://forums.gunbroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=65074
“The Firearms International firm was begun in around 1952 as a front for the CIA to obtain and ship, through supposed commercial sales channels, surplus firearms to allies of the United States during the Cold War. One of the major buyers for this new company was a then little known arms expert for the CIA’s Office of Sceintific Intelligence named Sam Cummings. Allan Dulles, then CIA director, gave Cummings the assignment to travel around Europe as a buyer for Firearms International and purchase huge quantities of WWII suplus firearms and equipment, ostensibly to be used in Hollywood war movies! The results were impressive to say the least; Cummings was able to purchase surplus military arms buy the TON and millions of rounds of ammunition. In reality nearly all of this equipment was going to Nationalist China, South East Asia, the Middle East (I’ll let you guess what tiny country we were supplying) and later to the Bay of Pigs fiasco. The CIA divested itself from Firearms International in 1962 after the Bay of Pigs when it became pretty clear to everyone (including Congress) exactly what was going on. Cummings himself went on to start INTERARMCO and later Interarms and the rest is firearms history. This came from my old boss who knew (and STRONGLY disliked) Cummings from the old days as well as other information I have obtained from people “in the know”. Take it with a grain of salt, but I believe it. the rest of the Firearms International story is far more conventional.
During the 1960’s Firearms International were the official importers for such firearms as Rossi, Taurus, Star, Astra, and SAKO. They also imported a fabulous 12ga brrech loading saluting cannon which they retailed for $7.95. The little company did a good business but when the Gun Control Act of 1968 hit they fell on hard times. In 1969 the Garcia Corperation purchased Firearms International outright and set up a small factory in Accokeek, Maryland (ever heard of the place?). The idea was to manufacturer in the United States handguns which could no longer be imported due to the GCA-68 “sporting purpose” test. Garcia kept the Firearms International’s name on certian handguns, but most of their lines carried the Garcia stamp. These included Beretta, SAKO, FN, Musketeer, Unique, and some other Spanish shotguns and an interesting pistol called the Gaucho. This was a Spanish copy of the Colt Woddsman which looked so real that Garcia was forced to discontinue it under threat of legal action. All and all Garcia had a very wide selection of firearms, including many I did not bother to mention. later the Firearms International name was discontinued by Garcia completely...but the story does not end here.
In late 1978 Berreta’s import agreement with Garcia was going to expire and Beretta was interested in entering the US market under its own name. They were also interested in producing pistols like the Model 950, Model 20 and Model 21 in the United States to avoid the restrictions of the GCA-68, none of those models had been available for sale for a decade and there was a continuing demand in the USA for small pocket automatics and Beretta wanted a slice of that pie very badly. A deal was struck and they purchased the old FI/Garcia factory in Accokeek, Maryland. They used this small factory as a basis for their entry into the trails for a new 9mm service pistol for the United States in the early 80’s, the requirement being that the pistol selected must be assembled in the USA after a certain point in the contract. So there you are Paul, Firearms International is really behind the adoption of the Beretta M9 serive pistol, I’ll bet you never knew that. I hope you found something in here useful.”
Interesting stuff