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Machine Guns take stage after years in the shadows
DISPLAY AT ANNUAL SHOW HAS SOME PONDERING PURCHASES
By Karen Aho
Daily News Reporter
(Published September 24, 2000)
It stands like a monument to firepower: the Browning M2HB.
Raised on a giant tripod, the U.S. and Alaska flags draped in the background, the heavy machine gun weighs 128 pounds empty, fires .50-caliber, $2 cartridges and, if all goes well, fires 550 rounds a minute. It was developed by John Browning, a turn-of-the-century gunsmith so skilled that some of his fundamental designs haven't changed since 1918.
A gun like it sits on the floor. They are among nearly 40 machine guns on display at the Alaska Gun Collectors Association's semiannual gun show at Ben Boeke Ice Arena this weekend. The display is the first by the Alaska Machine Gun Association. Historical accouterments include an original American white oak ammunition case, weaved cotton ammo belts and vintage loaders.
The only thing missing, joked one passer-by, is a placard of Anchorage Mayor George Wuerch, the man in part responsible for the heightened interest in machine guns.
This summer Wuerch ordered Police Chief Duane Udland to reverse a long-standing practice and start signing off on the federal forms required to own the guns. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms requires the local chief law enforcement officer to sign a statement saying he has no indication that the applicant would use the weapon in a crime. Udland, like heads of some other Alaska law enforcement organizations, had refused, saying he didn't want to be held liable.
"Hail George Wuerch," the passer-by added in earnest salute.
The exhibit is meant as a comprehensive introduction to machine guns and other weapons whose purchase is restricted under the National Firearms Act, said the association's president, Mike Hawker, "because now it's available to the average person."
And citizens are interested. The Machine Gun Association, formed in May, has seen membership nearly double since Wuerch first suggested the permits become available, from about 60 to 100 members. Twenty more put in membership applications in the first three hours of the gun show Saturday.
Whether many people will buy is another matter. Dealers think an initial spike in interest now will quickly drop off. The guns are expensive, and buyers must pass an extensive local and federal background check that can take months.
Anchorage dealer Mike Sargent got some serious interest Saturday in the least expensive machine gun available at the show, a $3,400 Vector Arms Uzi submachine gun. "Well, I got a lot of guys willing to go talk to their wives," he said.
But the prices quickly double for other machine guns, and sheer economics tends to limit acquisition to collectors or serious investors.The federal government outlawed civilian ownership of machine guns not registered before 1986, leaving a finite supply of legal weapons.
Hawker, a retired investment banker and certified public accountant, owns many styles of guns. To him, they represent history, from the settling of the Americas through the world wars and beyond. He calls himself one of "a bunch of middle-age guys in a very expensive hobby."
For Don Kitchen, a former police officer and now an assistant district attorney in Anchorage, the hobby stemmed from an interest in World War II. As a boy, he devoured books on the war. As an adult, he can add to the experience. He likened firing his machine gun to sitting at a war bunker to visit history.
"Just for that fleeting moment you get a sense of what that must have been like," he said. "Sometimes you feel a great deal of patriotism."
But don't get these guys wrong (most of these folks are men). They like to shoot. Some call it machismo. The guns emit power. They're loud. What look like bursts of fire blast out the side. They're also surprisingly light on the shoulder because much of the recoil is absorbed by the barrel. The gun tends instead to pull to the right, making target shooting a challenge.
Gun owners meet periodically at area ranges, firing off $5 boxes of cartridges in minutes. Every Memorial Day, more than 100 enthusiasts converge in Anderson for a shootout so grand they say it rocks the ground. A pyrotechnics expert sets up dynamite charges in abandoned cars, and they expend $20,000 in ammunition in just hours, blasting the frames to small piles of singed metal. Last year they shot up an armored car. The bullets never pierced the windows, which ultimately just cracked and fell out. One man fired bowling pins from a cannon.
A video of the Anderson shoot is playing at the gun show. Among the still photos displayed are some of the 13-year-old daughter of association member Dick Traini, a university history teacher and former assemblyman. On her bedroom wall she keeps a piece of aluminum as a trophy. It's from a car she blew up with the .50-caliber Browning at the shoot.
"My daughter tells me it's just a lot of fun," Traini said. "Nothing wrong with having fun. And we can. Some countries you can't."
The gun show continues today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Reporter Karen Aho can be reached at kaho@adn.com.
Copyright © 2000 The Anchorage Daily News
Machine Guns take stage after years in the shadows
DISPLAY AT ANNUAL SHOW HAS SOME PONDERING PURCHASES
By Karen Aho
Daily News Reporter
(Published September 24, 2000)
It stands like a monument to firepower: the Browning M2HB.
Raised on a giant tripod, the U.S. and Alaska flags draped in the background, the heavy machine gun weighs 128 pounds empty, fires .50-caliber, $2 cartridges and, if all goes well, fires 550 rounds a minute. It was developed by John Browning, a turn-of-the-century gunsmith so skilled that some of his fundamental designs haven't changed since 1918.
A gun like it sits on the floor. They are among nearly 40 machine guns on display at the Alaska Gun Collectors Association's semiannual gun show at Ben Boeke Ice Arena this weekend. The display is the first by the Alaska Machine Gun Association. Historical accouterments include an original American white oak ammunition case, weaved cotton ammo belts and vintage loaders.
The only thing missing, joked one passer-by, is a placard of Anchorage Mayor George Wuerch, the man in part responsible for the heightened interest in machine guns.
This summer Wuerch ordered Police Chief Duane Udland to reverse a long-standing practice and start signing off on the federal forms required to own the guns. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms requires the local chief law enforcement officer to sign a statement saying he has no indication that the applicant would use the weapon in a crime. Udland, like heads of some other Alaska law enforcement organizations, had refused, saying he didn't want to be held liable.
"Hail George Wuerch," the passer-by added in earnest salute.
The exhibit is meant as a comprehensive introduction to machine guns and other weapons whose purchase is restricted under the National Firearms Act, said the association's president, Mike Hawker, "because now it's available to the average person."
And citizens are interested. The Machine Gun Association, formed in May, has seen membership nearly double since Wuerch first suggested the permits become available, from about 60 to 100 members. Twenty more put in membership applications in the first three hours of the gun show Saturday.
Whether many people will buy is another matter. Dealers think an initial spike in interest now will quickly drop off. The guns are expensive, and buyers must pass an extensive local and federal background check that can take months.
Anchorage dealer Mike Sargent got some serious interest Saturday in the least expensive machine gun available at the show, a $3,400 Vector Arms Uzi submachine gun. "Well, I got a lot of guys willing to go talk to their wives," he said.
But the prices quickly double for other machine guns, and sheer economics tends to limit acquisition to collectors or serious investors.The federal government outlawed civilian ownership of machine guns not registered before 1986, leaving a finite supply of legal weapons.
Hawker, a retired investment banker and certified public accountant, owns many styles of guns. To him, they represent history, from the settling of the Americas through the world wars and beyond. He calls himself one of "a bunch of middle-age guys in a very expensive hobby."
For Don Kitchen, a former police officer and now an assistant district attorney in Anchorage, the hobby stemmed from an interest in World War II. As a boy, he devoured books on the war. As an adult, he can add to the experience. He likened firing his machine gun to sitting at a war bunker to visit history.
"Just for that fleeting moment you get a sense of what that must have been like," he said. "Sometimes you feel a great deal of patriotism."
But don't get these guys wrong (most of these folks are men). They like to shoot. Some call it machismo. The guns emit power. They're loud. What look like bursts of fire blast out the side. They're also surprisingly light on the shoulder because much of the recoil is absorbed by the barrel. The gun tends instead to pull to the right, making target shooting a challenge.
Gun owners meet periodically at area ranges, firing off $5 boxes of cartridges in minutes. Every Memorial Day, more than 100 enthusiasts converge in Anderson for a shootout so grand they say it rocks the ground. A pyrotechnics expert sets up dynamite charges in abandoned cars, and they expend $20,000 in ammunition in just hours, blasting the frames to small piles of singed metal. Last year they shot up an armored car. The bullets never pierced the windows, which ultimately just cracked and fell out. One man fired bowling pins from a cannon.
A video of the Anderson shoot is playing at the gun show. Among the still photos displayed are some of the 13-year-old daughter of association member Dick Traini, a university history teacher and former assemblyman. On her bedroom wall she keeps a piece of aluminum as a trophy. It's from a car she blew up with the .50-caliber Browning at the shoot.
"My daughter tells me it's just a lot of fun," Traini said. "Nothing wrong with having fun. And we can. Some countries you can't."
The gun show continues today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Reporter Karen Aho can be reached at kaho@adn.com.
Copyright © 2000 The Anchorage Daily News
I like machine guns too... 