Late last month, the Swiss firearms maker B&T AG (Brügger & Thomet) saw its main facility in Thun go up in flames. The blaze hit in the early hours of October 29, 2026, around 3:10 a.m., at the Tempelstrasse site in the industrial quarter. Upper floors took the worst of it—windows blown out, walls blackened, equipment inside reduced to debris. No one was hurt, which is the one clear piece of good news. The main building, flagship store, and indoor shooting range are closed until further notice.
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Police in Bern canton quickly treated arson as the leading explanation and asked for witnesses. Karl Brügger, the company’s founder and chairman, put the damage somewhere between 12 and 20 million Swiss francs in comments to Blick. That’s roughly $15–24 million. He described parts of the building as looking like a war zone but noted the firm is insured and its existence is not in doubt.
Videos circulating online claim responsibility and link the attack to B&T’s GL06 launcher—the same tool known in France as the LBD40. French police have used it during recent protests; radical autonomous groups have long hated the platform. One clip reportedly shows Molotov-style devices being thrown and carries slogans such as “Fuck LBD” and “Swiss, France, Germany, in the street with Gen Z.” French outlets amplified the material, and Swiss authorities are checking whether it is genuine. Investigators have not named suspects.
B&T’s response has been direct. In a statement released early November, the company told whoever is responsible that buildings, machines, and materials can be destroyed and financial losses can be inflicted, “but there is one thing you will never achieve: bringing B&T and our industry to their knees.” They stressed that employees, knowledge, experience, and cohesion cannot be burned away. The official line ends with a clear motto: “We stand together. We will not be intimidated. We will not be defeated. We will come back stronger.” Violence and intimidation are rejected outright; differing opinions and peaceful criticism are not. The firm places its trust in the rule of law and the competent authorities.
You can read the full English-language coverage and company excerpts at Guns.com and the original German press release on B&T’s site. The US-facing Instagram account (@btswiss.us) posted a short note thanking people for the support and pointing to bt-swiss.us for updates. That site indicates a new, fully Swiss-owned US operation is set to launch on January 1, 2027, while existing Utah suppressor production has already scaled up.
B&T has spent decades building suppressors, the APC series (including the APC9K selected by the U.S. Army and Air Force), and other professional tools. The Thun fire is a serious setback for operations in Switzerland, but the company is already signaling that production capacity elsewhere and the people who run the business will keep the work moving. In an industry that has faced legal, political, and now physical attacks, the statement reads less like a press release and more like a refusal to let destruction dictate the next chapter.
We’ll keep watching for official updates from B&T and the Bern police. For now, the message from Thun is straightforward: the buildings may be damaged, but the company is not done.
Sources: NZZ, Guns.com, B&T AG official statement, bt-swiss.us, Blick via coverage