From the WSJ Opinion Journal
_____________________________________
Trigger Happy
Family fun at the machine-gun range.
BY MARK YOST
Wednesday, October 15, 2003 12:01 a.m. EDT
WEST POINT, Ky.--A casualty list from the Knob Creek Gun Range, which hosted one of the country's largest machine-gun shoots this past weekend, would look something like this: Two dozen old appliances. A dozen junked cars. Tens of thousands of rounds of spent ammunition. Zero people.
Aim: Having a blast.
These statistics will be disturbing to the myopic antigun crowd, which fails to recognize the millions of rounds fired safely every year, including the tens of thousands fired at this twice-yearly event that draws everyday folks from as far away as California and Florida.
The special draw here is to be able to go full auto--something heavily regulated since the 1930s--with some of the most impressive hardware on the planet. I knew this was serious when I walked through the main gate and the first range offered flame throwers for rent--$65 for regular grade; $125 a squirt if you wanted to upgrade to Napalm.
This upper range was where they had the heavy stuff: everything from a Civil War-era Gatling gun to its modern-day cousin, the minigun, which can spit out 6,000 rounds a minute. Also on display was a bevy of Browning .50-caliber machine guns, as well as M60s, M-16s, Uzis, Browning Automatic Rifles and just about anything else you can think of. There was also a trade show, where you could buy everything from World War II bayonets to the guns they fit on.
After the usual safety checks, the upper range opened up--with a vengeance. The fully automatic gunfire was deafening, with a dozen or so heavy machine guns firing at any one time. Every now and then, the din would be punctuated by the sonic-boom-like thud of a .50-caliber sniper rifle.
I listened to this high-caliber cacophony for 10 minutes or so, then went to the lower range, where you could rent lower-caliber machine guns. The range was about 100 yards deep and littered with junked cars, old refrigerators, empty propane cylinders and soft-drink cans. The weapon that immediately caught my eye was the MG42, the workhorse of the Wehrmacht and considered by many to be the finest machine gun ever made. At just 25 pounds, it can fire 1,200 rounds a minute and is lethally accurate up to 1,100 yards. I had to shoot it.
After signing a release form and forking over $55 for 50 rounds, I hunkered down and took aim. With remarkably little effort, I obliterated the hubcap on a rusting car about 100 yards out. Alas, running through the 50-round belt took all of about four seconds. Before I knew it, the gun owner was smiling and shaking my hand. I was happy but wanted more.
This was a common lament. A guy next to me told me how he burned through $550 firing the MG42 last year.
"I just couldn't stop," he said.
Neither could I. But not before watching 10-year-old Emily fire the Heckler & Koch MP5, the preferred weapon of counterterrorist units the world over. This is a good point to note that although I appeared friendly in my NRA ball cap and eager grin, folks here were naturally skeptical of a reporter. They'd been burned too often by TV reporters who come to these shows once a decade and find the tiny percentage of attendees wearing Nazi uniforms or spewing some hokum about the Trilateral Commission. They then go back to their New York editing rooms and paint these extremists as indicative of the "gun culture." But after just five minutes here, it was clear that there's nothing more extreme about these people and their love of guns than the folks who travel the world over collecting Hummels or salt shakers.
Oh sure, there were probably too many camouflage camisoles for the average soccer mom. But for every ersatz Rambo there was someone dressed in Bermuda shorts and a golf shirt. More important, whole families were here, most of whom see a day at the gun range not as a precursor to Columbine, but as good bonding time.
Such was the case with Emily's dad, Rob, who, like most people, declined to give his last name. When asked by the MP5 owner if Emily had ever shot a gun before, Rob quickly rattled off an array of pistols and shotguns. "I think she'll do fine," the gun owner said. And she did.
A little nervous at first, she pulled the trigger with trepidation, squeezing off a round or two. But Emily quickly discovered why the MP5 is loved by the FBI, Delta Force and others. It's a full-blown submachine gun, but with the kick of a cap gun. With renewed confidence, she quickly expended the rest of her clip and walked off the line with a big grin.
Returning to the upper range, I found a guy renting out his array of .50-cals and paid $30 to fire four rounds out of the booming single-shot .50-cal. sniper rifle.
This gun was the subject of a media frenzy a few years back. With a range of over a mile and a muzzle velocity of more than 2,500 feet a second, it's used primarily by the military to disable armored vehicles by puncturing the engine block. In civilian circles, these specialty rifles cost $10,000 or more and are favored by a small cadre of shooting enthusiasts in the desert West, the only place where the gun can be used to its maximum range.
When my turn came, I took aim at what looked like a school bus (I couldn't tell because it was about 500 yards away and riddled with bullet holes). Lining it up through the telescopic sight, I aimed for the engine compartment and gently squeezed the trigger. The concussion blew up small clouds at my feet and behind the bus. The shell had easily gone right through the bus and into the hillside. Talk about bang for your buck!
This was the scene for much of the day. Just when you thought you'd seen it all, someone opened up with a set of twin-mounted .30-caliber machine guns, or the more lethal array of quad-mounted .50-cals in a swivel turret. The shooting continued into the night, with tracer rounds lighting up the sky in an array that would make the Gruccis jealous.
Although encouraged by my editors to rent the flame thrower, after firing the MG42 and the .50-cal., it just looked silly. Why scorch a car carcass with such a crude weapon when I'd had the privilege to fire two of the most highly regarded firearms in the world. It seemed like overkill. And here that's saying something.
_______________________________________________
I am really jealous...I'm on the wrong side of the country for this, and the wrong state for anything similar out here.
Still, it's wonderful to read a pro-gun article in a newspaper (or site, as the case may be.)
_____________________________________
Trigger Happy
Family fun at the machine-gun range.
BY MARK YOST
Wednesday, October 15, 2003 12:01 a.m. EDT
WEST POINT, Ky.--A casualty list from the Knob Creek Gun Range, which hosted one of the country's largest machine-gun shoots this past weekend, would look something like this: Two dozen old appliances. A dozen junked cars. Tens of thousands of rounds of spent ammunition. Zero people.
Aim: Having a blast.
These statistics will be disturbing to the myopic antigun crowd, which fails to recognize the millions of rounds fired safely every year, including the tens of thousands fired at this twice-yearly event that draws everyday folks from as far away as California and Florida.
The special draw here is to be able to go full auto--something heavily regulated since the 1930s--with some of the most impressive hardware on the planet. I knew this was serious when I walked through the main gate and the first range offered flame throwers for rent--$65 for regular grade; $125 a squirt if you wanted to upgrade to Napalm.
This upper range was where they had the heavy stuff: everything from a Civil War-era Gatling gun to its modern-day cousin, the minigun, which can spit out 6,000 rounds a minute. Also on display was a bevy of Browning .50-caliber machine guns, as well as M60s, M-16s, Uzis, Browning Automatic Rifles and just about anything else you can think of. There was also a trade show, where you could buy everything from World War II bayonets to the guns they fit on.
After the usual safety checks, the upper range opened up--with a vengeance. The fully automatic gunfire was deafening, with a dozen or so heavy machine guns firing at any one time. Every now and then, the din would be punctuated by the sonic-boom-like thud of a .50-caliber sniper rifle.
I listened to this high-caliber cacophony for 10 minutes or so, then went to the lower range, where you could rent lower-caliber machine guns. The range was about 100 yards deep and littered with junked cars, old refrigerators, empty propane cylinders and soft-drink cans. The weapon that immediately caught my eye was the MG42, the workhorse of the Wehrmacht and considered by many to be the finest machine gun ever made. At just 25 pounds, it can fire 1,200 rounds a minute and is lethally accurate up to 1,100 yards. I had to shoot it.
After signing a release form and forking over $55 for 50 rounds, I hunkered down and took aim. With remarkably little effort, I obliterated the hubcap on a rusting car about 100 yards out. Alas, running through the 50-round belt took all of about four seconds. Before I knew it, the gun owner was smiling and shaking my hand. I was happy but wanted more.
This was a common lament. A guy next to me told me how he burned through $550 firing the MG42 last year.
"I just couldn't stop," he said.
Neither could I. But not before watching 10-year-old Emily fire the Heckler & Koch MP5, the preferred weapon of counterterrorist units the world over. This is a good point to note that although I appeared friendly in my NRA ball cap and eager grin, folks here were naturally skeptical of a reporter. They'd been burned too often by TV reporters who come to these shows once a decade and find the tiny percentage of attendees wearing Nazi uniforms or spewing some hokum about the Trilateral Commission. They then go back to their New York editing rooms and paint these extremists as indicative of the "gun culture." But after just five minutes here, it was clear that there's nothing more extreme about these people and their love of guns than the folks who travel the world over collecting Hummels or salt shakers.
Oh sure, there were probably too many camouflage camisoles for the average soccer mom. But for every ersatz Rambo there was someone dressed in Bermuda shorts and a golf shirt. More important, whole families were here, most of whom see a day at the gun range not as a precursor to Columbine, but as good bonding time.
Such was the case with Emily's dad, Rob, who, like most people, declined to give his last name. When asked by the MP5 owner if Emily had ever shot a gun before, Rob quickly rattled off an array of pistols and shotguns. "I think she'll do fine," the gun owner said. And she did.
A little nervous at first, she pulled the trigger with trepidation, squeezing off a round or two. But Emily quickly discovered why the MP5 is loved by the FBI, Delta Force and others. It's a full-blown submachine gun, but with the kick of a cap gun. With renewed confidence, she quickly expended the rest of her clip and walked off the line with a big grin.
Returning to the upper range, I found a guy renting out his array of .50-cals and paid $30 to fire four rounds out of the booming single-shot .50-cal. sniper rifle.
This gun was the subject of a media frenzy a few years back. With a range of over a mile and a muzzle velocity of more than 2,500 feet a second, it's used primarily by the military to disable armored vehicles by puncturing the engine block. In civilian circles, these specialty rifles cost $10,000 or more and are favored by a small cadre of shooting enthusiasts in the desert West, the only place where the gun can be used to its maximum range.
When my turn came, I took aim at what looked like a school bus (I couldn't tell because it was about 500 yards away and riddled with bullet holes). Lining it up through the telescopic sight, I aimed for the engine compartment and gently squeezed the trigger. The concussion blew up small clouds at my feet and behind the bus. The shell had easily gone right through the bus and into the hillside. Talk about bang for your buck!
This was the scene for much of the day. Just when you thought you'd seen it all, someone opened up with a set of twin-mounted .30-caliber machine guns, or the more lethal array of quad-mounted .50-cals in a swivel turret. The shooting continued into the night, with tracer rounds lighting up the sky in an array that would make the Gruccis jealous.
Although encouraged by my editors to rent the flame thrower, after firing the MG42 and the .50-cal., it just looked silly. Why scorch a car carcass with such a crude weapon when I'd had the privilege to fire two of the most highly regarded firearms in the world. It seemed like overkill. And here that's saying something.
_______________________________________________
I am really jealous...I'm on the wrong side of the country for this, and the wrong state for anything similar out here.
Still, it's wonderful to read a pro-gun article in a newspaper (or site, as the case may be.)
NFA34