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William Cantelo, a 19th Century inventor rumoured to be working on an early version of the machine-gun, left his house one day and never returned. In the early 1880s, the residents of Bargate Street, Southampton, were probably a bit fed up with one of their neighbours. From the cellar beneath the pub run by William Cantelo would come the sound of rapid gunfire. Cantelo, an engineer and gun-maker, was experimenting with a new type of gun. Nobody knew what it was, but it produced shots in quick succession. It was clearly not your average rifle. One day, Cantelo announced to...

The gun is John Moses Browning’s M1895 Colt-Browning machine gun, aka ... Potato Digger.

NORTH ANSON, Maine — Despite heavy showers early on and even some light snow, hundreds of people — mostly men, many sporting orange hats, camouflage clothing and carrying guns — were already milling around the former rock quarry on Sunday morning. Start of deer season? Nope. The only deer in sight were decoys or Styrofoam targets, and there was no tagging station in sight. The site was the 10-acre Williams Machine Gun Range and the event was the third annual Wounded Warrior Machine Gun Shoot. Instead of deer, the targets for this event included pumpkins — some with explosive charges...

Last spring, Rep. Margaret Conditt, an "A"-rated Buckeye Firearms Association endorsee, announced she was having a "Shoot for Liberty" fundraiser, at which it was originally advertised that participants would be given an opportunity to shoot a machine gun. The response from the gun ban extremist crowd was quick. Reps. Ted Celeste and Tracy Maxwell Heard (Democrats from the Columbus area) joined Toby Hoover, who fronts what often appears to be a one-woman show known as the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, in staging a press conference to decry the event. Celeste said, "To parade about a fundraiser where supporters can...

LAS VEGAS—The ad is pure Vegas and smacks you in the face moments after stepping off the plane at McCarran International Airport. “TRY ONE!” the golden poster featuring the gun-toting blond shouts. “SHOOT A REAL MACHINEGUN!” She stands in front of a display booth filled with high-powered weapons — Uzis, Thompsons, M-16s — and wields a huge gun herself, cocked high and equipped with a large capacity clip. Las Vegas might be many things. But it has never been subtle. Next morning, The Gun Store’s parking lot at 2900 East Tropicana is full. By 10 a.m. the lineup is out...

Louisiana --(Ammoland.com)- When it comes to guns, there is plenty of spin in Bill O’Reilly’s “No Spin Zone.” The zone has been infected with a bad case of yellow journalism. Mr. O’Reilly is either woefully ignorant of the most basic of firearm laws, nomenclature, rules and requirements, or he has a clear anti-gun agenda and is a willing puppet for those who want to end the Second Amendment. Mr. O’Reilly recently stated on his TV program, “The O’Reilly Factor,” that anyone in America can go out and buy a machine gun or bazooka without any reporting requirements at all. Are...

Fiery Reaction to Marine’s Stolen Saddam Rifle Is it among the spoils of war? Or worthy of a felony conviction that carries a 10-year prison sentence? The recent conviction of a Twentynine Palms Marine from Hemet has sparked a debate from readers and a fierce defense from the Marine himself. To rewind, Staff Sgt. Joel Cleve Miller was convicted last week of illegal possession of a machine gun. Federal prosecutors said he smuggled a chrome-plated AK-47 that once belonged to Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein’s Royal Guard back to his home in Hemet after a 2005 tour in Iraq. Miller now...

Hemet: Marine convicted of smuggling rifle from Saddam palace - An AK-47 seized from Saddam Hussein’s Royal Guard, belonging to Twentynine Palms Marine Joel Cleve Miller. Federal prosecutors said former Staff Sgt. Joel Cleve Miller, 40, was found guilty of possession of an illegal chrome AK-47 that he smuggled back from Iraq during a 14-month tour in 2005. When he returned to his home in Hemet, he bragged to several friends that he smuggled the gun back after it once belonged to Saddam Hussein’s Royal Guard. The U.S. Marine Corps discharged Miller in December 2011 after 20 years in the...

A deadly shooting rampage at a Carson City IHOP restaurant last month has prompted a call for a review of Nevada's gun laws. Assembly Judiciary Committee Chairman William Horne said it would be appropriate for lawmakers to consider changes to the state's gun regulations after a man with a history of mental illness shot 11 people with an assault weapon at the restaurant, killing three Nevada National Guard members and a civilian before killing himself. Horne, D-Las Vegas, told the Reno Gazette-Journal that while he's a gun owner who supports gun rights, he questions why citizens need to own an...

Who doesn’t love Predator? Two juiced up governors-to-be on screen simultaneously throwing lead at a common enemy and taking out bad guys. Its a typical late-80s action film, but the reason that it always stuck in my mind was Governor Ventura’s handheld M134 minigun. Nevermind that (if real) the weapon would only have enough ammunition for less than 5 seconds of firing, I thought it was a great concept. Apparently an Iowa National Guard unit (1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, Iowa National Guard) thought so too, and that’s why they built one. Well,...

I need one of these! Holy Carp!

For the last 24 years, rumors have persisted and variations based on memory have persisted concerning the passage of the Hughes Amendment (Machine gun ban) to the 1986 Firearm Owners Protection Act. Several days ago, an associate of mine secured a copy of the audio/video of the committee hearings run by Charlie Rangel where this law was passed out to Congress. Rumor insisted that there were shenanigans concerning the passage of the Hughes Amendment but we never had the factual data to back it up. Now, we do. Critical excerpts from the video are now posted on youtube at this...

Testimony in the case of US v ONE HISTORIC ARMS MACHINE GUN revealed there are untold numbers of unregistered machine guns currently owned by Americans that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives not only knows about, but actually created the conditions whereby this situation exists. Mike Vanderboegh explains at Sipsey Street Irregulars: Let me draw your attention to the sworn testimony of one Richard Vasquez, ATF Assistant Chief, Firearms Technology Branch… from a deposition on 10 September 2009… The relevant testimony excerpt is included in the sidebar slide accompanying this column. The relevant ATF ruling to consult is...

Just in time for Christmas: ATF Deputy Director Kenneth Melson as the Grinch. "Idle bureaucrats are the devil's playthings." So, the ATF doubles down on stupidity with this ruling from the Grinch. I can't wait to see the PR consequences of this one, and, better, what the GOP oversight committees dig out about the hows and whys of the agency covering for the oversteps of a moronic field supervisor. I love it. What I'd love even more is to watch while Melson takes his life in his own hands and actually SHOOTS one of these ATF-modified Airsofts while holding it....

The Machine Gun Shoot Competition happened at the Knob Creek Gun Range in Kentucky this weekend in which hundreds of machine gun dealers, owners and enthusiasts showed up to fire four rounds at random appliances and vehicles. The Knob Creek Gun Range websites describes this event with similar giddiness and rhetoric of a 13-year-old at a “Return of the King” premiere, stating: “..The charges are set off by the impact of the bullets. Creating large and small mushroom clouds and fire balls from hell!” It’s true. Astute men, women and judging from the FAQ sheet on their website inquiring what...

Michigan --(Ammoland.com)- Certain collectible guns bring out that “wow” factor. This is especially true of the vintage firearms from the Soviet Union that helped turn back the Nazi invaders and were carried by soldiers of the Red Army during the so-called Great Patriotic War. Of course actually trying to obtain a live firing version of the infamous PPSh-41 submachine gun, or DP-28 light machinegun can be no small challenge. Non-firing versions of both guns were once fairly common, but have since dried up. However, some of those old parts kits have been used to good effect by skilled gunsmiths such...

The U.S. Department of Defense recently ordered modification kits (for $5,700 each) for M2 12.7mm (.50 caliber) machine-guns. These kits upgrade existing weapons to the M2E2 standard and allow for quick barrel changes. Each barrel weighs 10.9 kg/24 pounds. There is also a mounting rail for scopes and a flash suppressor. Earlier this year, the Department of Defense also bought 8,000 more M2 machine-gun barrels (for $850 each). This M2E2 version is the best upgrade delivered for the M2 so far. There are others in the works. It was two years ago that the U.S. Department of Defense gave General...

Security along the DMZ has gone high-tech, as South Korea has quietly installed a number of machine gun-armed robots to serve as the first line of defense against the potential advance of North Korean soldiers. The stationary robots — which look like a cross between a traffic signal and a tourist-trap telescope — are more drone than Terminator in concept, operated remotely just outside the southern boundary of the DMZ by humans in a nearby command center. Officials refuse to say how many or where the robots have been deployed along the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas, but...

The Marine Corps will field its new, lightweight auto rifle this fall to five combat battalions preparing for war-zone deployments. Commandant Gen. James T. Conway gave Corps officials the green light in April to issue approximately 450 M27 Infantry Automatic Rifles, enough to replace every M249 squad automatic weapon in four infantry battalions and one light armored reconnaissance battalion. The limited fielding is a final test to find out if the Heckler & Koch-made weapon performs as well in an operational environment as it has in testing, said Charles Clark III, who oversees infantry weapons requirements at the Corps' Combat...

At the meeting Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl, both Republicans, got an earful from people who live in southeastern Arizona, along the border with Mexico. Huachuca City Mayor Byron Robertson told the lawmakers, "Last week when my police chief called me in and told me that an SUV-minivan had been stopped on I-10 with a 50-caliber machine gun mounted in the back and a rocket launcher."