It’s not illegal to own a fully automatic weapon, including military grade machine guns. Instead, ownership of these weapons is restricted. Federal law severely limits the ability of anyone, including gun dealers and shooting ranges, to purchase new machine guns. However, guns that were owned before 1986 continue to change hands. Owners of these weapons are required to pay a fee and register them with the federal government. As of 2006, those registrations indicated that over 390,000 machine guns were in private hands in the United States. In the same year, 1,280 unregistered machine guns were seized.
In a nation with over 300 million firearms, that makes machine guns just 0.13 percent of the weapons out there. However, it also means that there’s about one machine gun for every 1,000 Americans.
Registered machine guns are subject to a number of rules, and sometimes stiff fees, which makes them rare in the home collections of all but the most dedicated “enthusiasts.” But one place where they are concentrated is … Las Vegas. Because of locations like this.
The Vegas Machine Gun Experience! Get behind the trigger of a huge selection of the most legendary machine guns … Practice your 2nd Amendment right to bear arms with this adrenaline-inducing Vegas gun range package!
And this…
You and a companion will shoot a M4, AK-47, SAW, RPD, MP5, Thompson, SCAR, UZI, P90, G36, 1911 and a Desert Eagle all in the comfort of our private shooting range.
The tourist machine gun business means that the Las Vegas area is particularly rich in automatic weapons.
Campaign Action
Restrictions on automatic weapons—and the relative value of these weapons—mean that none of these facilities is likely to offer a “hey, take this machine gun home and shoot up whatever you want!” package. But sites around Las Vegas offer the opportunity to lay hands on an extraordinary range of fully automatic, military-grade weapons.
That includes a World War II MG 42 that shoots up to 1500 rounds a minute, a mini-gun that shoots 4,000 rounds per minute, and dozens of smaller weapons like the AK 47 or M 4. Notably, this includes tripod-mounted, belt-fed light machine guns whose rate of fire matches that demonstrated by recordings of the mass shooting.
There are at least eight shooting ranges offering the use of fully automatic weapons within a ten mile radius of the mass shooting in Las Vegas. Those facilities offer the use of many guns whose behavior would match that of the weapon used in the shooting. Overall, there are thousands of fully automatic weapons in the immediate Las Vegas area, and that’s before any need to consider unregistered weapons. There at least two such ranges near Mesquite, NV, which is listed as the home of shooting suspect Stephen Paddock.
While it would be complete speculation at this point to indicate that one of these ranges was the source of the weapon, the availability of these weapons in the area means that getting your hands on a machine gun — or practicing the use of a machine gun — doesn’t require years in the military or black market connections.
Just a Visa card.