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Automatic Weapons Are Legal, But It Takes A Lot To Get One Of The 630,000 In The U.S.

By Heath Druzin

Published December 21, 2018 at 12:23 AM EST

Roy Cagnacci drives his Vietnam-era Ford Mutt mounted with a belt-fed machine gun at the Idaho Automatic Weapons Collectors' Association annual Pumpkin Shoot. The group is part of a subculture of gun owners who collect heavily-regulated machine guns. [Heath Druzin / Boise State Public Radio] — Roy Cagnacci drives his Vietnam-era Ford Mutt mounted with a belt-fed machine gun at the Idaho Automatic Weapons Collectors' Association annual Pumpkin Shoot. The group is part of a subculture of gun owners who collect heavily-regulated machine guns.

In most people’s minds, machine guns are the province of wars and gangster movies. But for some hobbyists, they’re coveted collectors’ items – albeit heavily regulated, expensive and hard to come by.

On a blustery fall day at Black’s Creek Public Shooting Range in Ada County, Idaho, an arsenal’s been lined up: Included are representatives from just about every major war the U.S. fought (and a few it didn’t.) Across the range, in the sagebrush desert of Southern Idaho, a handful of hapless orange gourds await a solemn fate.