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A Splendid, Precarious Victory
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Blown Away
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What’s the Big Deal About Intelligent Design?
December 22, 2005 | 1 comment
Feature
Cloudy With a Chance of Weapons and Gold
A report from a semi-annual machine gun festival, held just this side of Fort Knox.
(Page 2 of 3)
By the way, these fully automatic machine guns are not the same thing as the so-called “assault weapons” that gun control partisans perennially try to ban. What the Brady Center and liberal politicians mislabel as “assault weapons” are nothing but ordinary semi-automatic rifles or handguns. Pull the trigger once and the gun goes “bang” once, just like any other firearm. But since many of those guns have a military appearance, scare tactics are used to demonize them as “assault weapons” in the minds of people who don’t know the difference.
Speaking of anti-gunners, a cottage industry has sprung up in recent years in which leftist journalists attend the Knob Creek shoot, and then publish pieces portraying the attendees as depraved, violent extremists walking around in Nazi garb. All I can say is: I saw thousands of people over the course of three days and, unsurprisingly, they were the same sort of folks you would see at any event in America open to the public. Better than at many events, in fact. After passing through the admission gate, the first people I encountered were volunteers politely soliciting donations for children’s diseases. Inside the clubhouse, the ladies were selling cookies, brownies, and cakes to send kids to camp. The most oddly dressed members of the crowd that I saw were three Mennonites.
THIS IS NOT a political event, but when any group in favor of firearms rights assembles, the sentiments in the air are diametrically opposed to totalitarian big government. On Friday night, I had an excellent dinner at a homey German restaurant called Frank’s—check out their piping-hot, crispy jägerschnitzel if you are ever in Radcliff, Kentucky. The cheerful, bustling German lady who waited on me (and on everyone else) noticed I was reading a book called From Darwin to Hitler, which traces the influence of social Darwinism and the eugenics movement on Nazi ideology. She stopped at my table, and inquired with sudden seriousness: “You know what the problem with people is?” I allowed that I didn’t. She pointed at the book, and nodded emphatically: “The problem is that people don’t learn from history!” I had to agree.
By and large, supporters of the Second Amendment have learned from history as it relates to gun rights. They know that Stalin and Mao put all firearms under the control of state and party, and that a disarmed populace was helpless to resist their mass murders. They are aware that Hitler used gun registration to confiscate firearms from Jews. They also see clearly that in this country the party of centralized government power is forever pushing for gun bans, registration, and other restrictions aimed at depriving citizens of their ability to own firearms.
That’s why gun owners, taken together, are advocates of freedom and are resistant to overreaching government. T-shirts worn by gun owners at Knob Creek had slogans like “Tyranny Emergency Response Team—Since 1776,” and “Free Men Own Guns. Slaves Don’t.”
The latter principle, by the way, is not just a t-shirt slogan. It has been a staple of political philosophy and law since the classical era. In Roman times, the Codex Justinianus made it clear that masters and free men were entitled to kill any slave who armed himself. The Supreme Court’s infamous Dred Scott decision supporting slavery denied that a black man could shed his slave status by entering free territory. If he could, it “would give to persons of the negro race, who were recognized as citizens in any one State of the Union, the right to enter every other State whenever they pleased, singly or in companies…and to keep and carry arms wherever they went.”
Andrew Fletcher, the influential 17th-century Scottish soldier, politician, and writer on militias is credited with coining the phrase “well-regulated militia,” incorporated by the founders in the Second Amendment. Fletcher affirmed this fundamental distinction between free men and slaves, stating that he could not see “why arms should be denied to any man who is not a slave, since they are the only true badges of liberty.…”
SO, BACK TO THE SHOOT. Besides the action on the main range, several scored competitions are held at separate ranges on other parts of the property: assault rifle, military bolt action rifle, shotgun, and so forth. I dropped in on the “subgun” competition. This involves running a course where the shooter engages targets by firing through windows or doorways, where moving targets pop up or swing by and are quickly obscured, and where weighted steel targets must be knocked down by being hit with multiple shots in succession. Running such courses is not unusual in firearms training or competition. The twist here is that the competitors shoot fully automatic submachine guns. Weapons that I saw ranged from high quality H&K MP5s, to somewhat Spartan British Sterlings, to the familiar drum-fed Thompsons. The competitors were amiable and pleased to discuss their weapons. One young man I talked to was associated with a company that manufactures silencers, or “suppressors” as they are known in the trade. “Less bang for your buck,” he explained with a smile.
On yet another range, separated by woods, a couple of machine gun rental vendors invited members of the public to try their hands at shooting full auto weapons. On Friday, I traipsed down the hill to the rental range, only to find a line of about 150 people in front of me. Sorry, not that interested. Saturday, same thing. Sunday—eureka, no line at all. There was a cornucopia of guns to choose from. I picked a Model 1919 belt-fed .30 caliber Browning, and fired a hundred rounds through it, making my very small fortune even smaller in a matter of seconds. I’ve shot full auto weapons before, but now the belt-fed variety can be crossed off the bucket list.
And yes, the “1919” designation refers to the fact that this model was placed in American military service almost a century ago. One dismal effect of the 1986 law outlawing new, full auto guns in civilian hands is that machine gun enthusiasts are now historians rather than innovators. Sure, it could be argued that perhaps there are no great technological advances remaining to be made in fully automatic weapons. Maybe our armed forces will continue to have superior automatic small arms courtesy of Defense Department acquisition programs and manufacturers who make guns for the military. Maybe.
It’s worth remembering that John Browning, the greatest firearms designer in world history, built his first gun at home at age 13. The M-16 military rifle was derived from path-breaking designs by Eugene Stoner, an amateur gun designer and tinkerer who never went to college, but eventually hitched up with a tiny company called ArmaLite. Innovation in military small arms tends to come from outside the armed forces, not within. One of the reasons Custer’s Seventh Cavalry got massacred was that their standard carbine was a government-issue, single-shot Springfield, while many of the Lakota and Cheyenne warriors wielded high-capacity, rapid-fire Henrys and Winchesters available on the open market.
THE GRAND BLOWOUT of the Knob Creek weekend is the night shoot on Saturday. Of the four 20- or 25-minute shooting sessions that evening, the first two were still in daylight. The final two took place in total blackness.
In the first session, the pièce de résistance was a full-size red and white city bus perched atop the hill at the far end of the range. Within seconds after the range went hot, the guns ignited the bus in a vortex of flame. Its big tires continued to burn for hours. Automobiles and boats met a similar fate. Between sessions, the Knob Creek Demolition Team in their green t-shirts hauled new “targets” onto the field to be riddled with gunfire, incinerated, or both. They also emplaced blue plastic 55-gallon drums of fuel for the fireballs. One young man drove a telescopic forklift, the kind with an extensible overhead boom. He lifted the charred and perforated automobile carcasses off the field by slipping the forks under their roofs, then trundled back with them to the side of the firing line and dropped the cars from on high into an enormous dumpster. Anything involving fire or explosions took place under the watchful eyes of volunteer firefighters from the Nichols Fire District. It is hard to convey how many things about this event remind you of America’s greatness.
The third session, conducted in complete darkness, commenced when the range operators switched off all the lights. That was the signal for firing to begin. Thunder and lightning erupted from the firing line. Three gigantic bursts of white light exploded downrange, metamorphosed into huge, fluffy blooms of orange-black flame, and then curled up into themselves as they levitated and vanished. Lines of gleaming tracers criss-crossed, and ricochets angled sharply into the surrounding hills or looped crazily into the air. Dense plumes of black smoke nearly obscured some of the flaming vehicles. Then more fireballs mushroomed, to the musical accompaniment of the big .50 calibers…
I didn’t stay for the fourth session, which was undoubtedly the most spectacular. I was perfectly satisfied, and my feet were tired. As I pulled out of the parking area in the lower field, the crescendoing roar of the machine guns burst forth again, including the unearthly, unmistakable buzzsawing of the minigun as it ripped a swath. Glancing uphill, I could see the flash of fireballs lighting up clouds of smoke above the trees.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (48) | Leave a comment
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Bill| 1.28.12 @ 8:30AM
Thank God for America!
Petronius| 1.28.12 @ 8:53AM
To All and Singular who shoot
The only thing the Federal Government has to do to enslave us is halt the manufacture and distribution of ammunition and loading components. There is only one mill in this country turning out smokeless powder. Add to it the fact that our side does not control any large public cultural institutions or corporate entities of any significance, and we are toast. When you get right down to it, people who want real Freedom are a disparate lot of purely self interested anarchists relative to political authority. Our social philosophy is grounded in the words spoken by the late John Wayne in his last film, The Shootist. "I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and require no less than the same from them." As such, government views us all as an entity to be subjugated and or, eliminated. Their agents were also at Knob Creek watching us. They just wait for the order to come for us.
wukong| 1.28.12 @ 11:47AM
Jack, I couldn't agree more. Why don't we start with the entertainment industry first. No more colossal wastes of other peoples money. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Herb| 2.6.12 @ 9:51AM
BATFE agents were indeed watching the happy firers at Knob Creek and the author should have spent at least half his article on
smoking them out. In my view the registered owners of automatic weapons are already marked for arrest when SHTF.
And there are those on this thread who will be cheering the Federales when they start pounding on doors. Or working for them or informing for them.
Jack London| 1.28.12 @ 10:40AM
A senseless waste of money and time. Imagine how much better off we'd be if these people spent all this effort say on repairing old people's houses, or such like.
Liberty| 1.28.12 @ 11:22AM
I'd rather imagine what is going to happen to tyrants like you when the ball drops.
Tyrants exercising their freedom of speech - stupidly - instead of exercising their freedom of action - actions speaking louder than words - hypocritically.
Diogenes| 1.29.12 @ 8:18AM
And blowing up a stationary, uncamoflaged refrigerator IED with a stream of bullets is what kind of action exactly???? What is the point of having a weapon that you can't figure out how to use, to defend a trailer in the woods worth about 20% the cost of your toy?
Reality| 1.29.12 @ 11:09AM
What is the point of having a brain that you can't figure out how to use, to defend the oppression of liberty through tyranny, such as arbitrary life, liberty, and the pursuit of abominable behavior, confiscation of wealth earned through labor, and all other liberal policy defying common sense?
You and your totalitarian comrades will become the natural manure of liberty when the balloon goes up.
Ryan| 2.6.12 @ 8:37AM
Says someone who has never fired full-auto.
It's FUN.
F-U-N.
VonMisesJr| 2.6.12 @ 10:25AM
Degenerate, the point of us having weapons and knowing how to use them is to make sure the OWS scum stay in the inner-city with you. Your enlightened rulers are enlightened enough to know not to waste time rebuilding Detroit or Newark. You will turn it into a rat infested slum no matter what.
But screw with the good people in Kentucky, and you will find out the "point" the hard way.
Mike| 1.28.12 @ 6:10PM
Jack
I am late comming to this game so please excuse my tardiness in responding to your post.
I hardly know where to start. I am exasperated by the person that your comment reveals that you are.
I can't possibly imagine how much better off we would be if these folk spent their money on something that you desire as it is their property. I wonder how many interests consume your wealth as oppossed to fixing up old folks homes or some such.
I will reveal this. I can imagine how worse off we would be if these folks didn't spend all this effort on exercising their Second Amendment rights. I imagine a tyrannical federal government, or a foriegn goverment, that are not afraid of what the citizens of this great Republic would do in response to a complete usurpation of our rights. Imagining such things, I see the same outcome as the Jews in Nazi Germany, or the peasants in Red China, or even the Blacks in the South after the Civil War.
Without the ability to defend ourselves against tyranny it is just a matter of time before the slaves are fettered. I celebrate these folks dedication to the concepts of liberty and freedom and salute them.
You, not so much.
Mike Johnston
SFC USA (RET)
Diogenes| 1.29.12 @ 8:19AM
They make medication that will ease your paranoia.
Mike| 1.29.12 @ 10:35AM
Well now that explains everything Diogenes. The millions that were killed after they were disarmed were paranoid.
But you will be OK. Those of us that will defend liberty against tyranny will defend you too.
Mike Johnston
SFC USA (RET)
Maxwell| 2.6.12 @ 8:48AM
Full auto, suppressors, and CCW are things I can only dream about here in Jersey with our RINO Chris Christie, Mittens best friend.
I just called my law firm of Wilson, Baer, Brown & Springfield and they told me that as soon as I can move South!
I never knew so many here on Am. Sp. were as anti-gun as Mittens and Christie. Learn something every day.
Melvin| 2.6.12 @ 7:55AM
There is that one small thing called freedom, that Americans still have, to do what the hell the want in this Country, without some damn busybody sticking their pointy nosed into the rarefied air. "Senseless waste of time and money."
Those Americans are bothering nobody. Did you fail to notice at the beginning of the article of all the fund-raising that was going on. "I encountered were volunteers politely soliciting donations for children's diseases. Inside the clubhouse, the ladies were selling cookies, brownies, and cakes to send kids to camp." I suppose this is a waste of time to?
Why can't people like you leave Americans who enjoy firearms the Sam hell alone? What is so awfully hard about that.
How come no one every makes snide remarks about former Speaker of the House requesting chocolate covered fresh Strawberries on her birthday aboard an Air Force Jet. Now it that is a complete waste of taxpayers money I don't know what is. But let a regular joe enjoy themselves, Oh, hell no we can't have that, they're participating in a complete waste of time.
Damn Socialists always sticking their noses where they don't belong.
Ryan| 2.6.12 @ 8:35AM
Bullets and guns and all the stuff sold there cost money. I bet there were plenty of paychecks related to the event...paychecks which build houses and send kids to school and the like.
Let the free market work occasionally.
calvin | 2.6.12 @ 9:02AM
London; what do you do for fun? If I buy a sailboat, or a horsefarm, and don't instead raise potatoes to feed the poor, or convert my C&C 30 into a commercial fishing boat, have I done something wasteful or immoral?
You miss the point of being American.
Live free or die.
Ret. Marine| 2.6.12 @ 12:21PM
Yeah all fine and dandy Jack, least you forget we have a Country to be saved first. A good home is a good thing to many, as long as they can afford it, not forcing me and others to pay for it because they chose my money over theirs but, the freedom protected by means of that force, illustrated by these machine guns, is far better than a typical hammer, although in the correct hands can do as much damage.
TheBeatGoesOn| 1.28.12 @ 12:24PM
Nice. I can smell the spent powder and my ears are ringing. I think I'll go outside and do a little plinking, being careful not to hit any critters who might be in these Southwest Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains. And, I'll pick up the shell casings too.
I enjoyed the account and your story telling skills. Thanks
rnd| 1.28.12 @ 4:17PM
Sir, thank you for posting this tremendous piece of information. To think that I've lived in Kentucky for a few years (many years ago) but did not know of this. April? Thank goodness for the web. I will look it up or call the Gold Vault Inn. (I do remember it as I was once a happy patron there as well)
God bless America! (And HE does!)
This sounds like a fantastic event. April?! I'm there! Thank you, sir, for informing us of this.
I've been needing a reason to go back to Bullitt County. The first place I got a vehicle moving violation ticket. Ah! The memories.
To the Editors: Please run this story again at least twice. Once in mid February and once again at the start of March.
More Americans need to know about this very fine, unique, cultural (chuckle!) Americana event.
More articles from Dan Peterson! He's our kind of guy.
Curt Quiggins| 1.28.12 @ 5:10PM
Knob Creek Gun Range is just twenty miles from my house and it is an amazing place. Machine gun shoots are held twice yearly typically on the second weekend of April and October. This show is a must for any true gun enthusiast. See their website at: www.machinegunshoot.com
Diogenes| 1.29.12 @ 8:27AM
Wouldn't it be cool to buy 2 this year and mount them on an ultralight for next year and STRAFE the show!!!! ALL the blood spatter and the camoed hillbillies hopscotching between the rows of portapotties!!! WOW! Good Times. They won't even hear Me coming with all the bap-bap-bap-bap bap and the BOOM! and BOOM!
A 2nd Amendment, don't need a pilot's license for an ultra lights, loaded my own rounds without a license either wet dream of an opportunity.
Make Columbine look like peace rally. Do you think they would EVER find Me, after 3 circles of the field and a short landing on a dirt road 17 miles away in the national Forest... ride out on the ATV I parked there and just motor down the road like every other gunnut redneck in a 4WD, mud covered Dodge....
Does TIDE take out GSR? Or should I bring a change of clothes? Wouldn't want the crowd at Shoney's to get a whiff of dull .30 cal perfumes and spontaneously ejaculate @ the buffet.
albert constantine jr.| 1.29.12 @ 9:55AM
"Make Columbine look like peace rally"
As you indulge your perverse fantasy, please factor in that everyone there can shoot back. You wouldn't need to write anything after the above sentence.
VonMisesJr| 2.6.12 @ 1:24PM
Let's just give degenerate some cynide and they can have a Jamestown statement. Why waste bullets when your enemy is stupid enough to commit suicide?
Pecos Pete| 2.6.12 @ 7:34AM
Diogenes: In your screed you forgot to call a few of us crackers. You are one whacked out leftist who would be pleased to see us trailer rednecks in the gulag. You need to read some history, like Russia in the 1930s.
Ryan| 2.6.12 @ 8:36AM
Wow, because that happens ALL THE TIME and we need to...
wait. No it doesn't.
Con Chef (NB) | 2.6.12 @ 9:15AM
Your hyperbole is almost middle school like in its idiocy, Diogenes. Why don't you go spend your money on leather gay bars, nipple piecings & blow?
You spend your money (undoubtedly either a welfare check or a trust fund) what YOU want to, so who the F**K are you to criticize what people who don't share your views spend money on?
How many houses for the homeless have YOU built? How much money have YOU given to the Wounded Warrior Project, or St. Jude's Children's Research Hopsital?
You haven't. You're just a pompous, self absorbed douchebag. Crawl back to your toilet at the Flushington Post, idiot.
Harry the Horrible| 2.6.12 @ 9:21AM
Bad news for the strafer. I'm pretty sure there is at least one anti-aircraft gun at the Knob Creek shoot. Probably more. I don't think the strafing run would last very long, though the gun crews might be disqualified for putting a round over the berm.
CREDIBILITY| 2.6.12 @ 3:38PM
I am a 1%er, in Mensa.
I am Diogenes.
I am fckewe.
I am Orr, Gasm and Associates.
I am Purp.
I am Purpleguy.
I am jharp.
I am Mensan...
Agamemnon| 2.6.12 @ 9:11PM
So?
Denis| 2.8.12 @ 11:16AM
Thanks for revealing your inner thoughts Diogenes. I will forward your remarks to the FBI. Clearly you are unbalanced, and a threat.
china electric moped Suppliers | 1.28.12 @ 10:04PM
china electric moped Suppliers
Appleby| 1.29.12 @ 8:43AM
Ontario Canada has had a prohibition against owning weapons of any kind since 1938. Not so long ago, a 14 year old was able to order an AK-47 on line and have it shipped to im from the States; the box was marked "Baseball B at" and Canada Post, obviously busy sleeping on the job (thanks to cell phone cameras, there is plenty of evidence of this) waved it on by, and it was onloy discovered when Mama went in to make his bed and thee it was in all its gloy.
Seeing there aer a lot more of these things around than anybody wants to admit, isn't it a good plan to hold festivals where the owners can actually learn how to use them properly? Otherwise somebody's going to shoot his eye out.
calvin | 2.6.12 @ 9:12AM
I bought a mailorder 12 ga. for 57 bucks when I was 15. I have not shot anybody with it yet.
My neighbor has his own shooting range; yesterday he was enjoying his freedom to make noise and destroy things. I felt safe and warm from the bad guys sitting in my living room across the streeet.
The reason people on remote farms are safe from the thugs in the nearby cities is that the bad guys reason most of us are armed to the teeth and leave us alone.
Stammon| 2.6.12 @ 12:25PM
Let's see:
1942 Finnish Nagant 7.62x54R
1955 Yugoslavian SKS 7.62x39R
2001 Scoped Ruger Ranch NATO 223 AP
1995 New England Arms 22 Hornet
1995 Scoped Mossberg Rifled Pump 20
1980 Remington Upland Bird 20
2000 Mossberg Riot 12 gauge.
1942 Mossberg US Training 22 Target
1955 Colt Agent 38 Special CC
These are just my house guns. The ones I use daily around the farm. My other 20 or so are pistols or black powder or hunting and target rifles. Among my friends I have the fewest amount of high powered guns, but more than most in black powder.
With 2 kids in college, and another 10 years of college with them and the other two coming up, I have no money for more guns.
Southern Indiana Farm, along the Ohio River.
c.j. acworth| 1.29.12 @ 3:09PM
The real tragedy, of course, is all the greenhouse gasses generated by the burning targets.
calvin | 2.6.12 @ 9:13AM
Oops poor grammer; it was I sitting in my living room not the desparados.
Sorry.
JimH| 2.6.12 @ 9:20AM
I know the Beatles meant to be ironic, but at least sometimes happiness is a warm gun.
Conservative Bob| 2.6.12 @ 2:09PM
'... happiness is a warm gun" Every weekend!
I have a range in the back yard. All of my neighbors shoot. Everyone in my family shoots. We unfortunately do not have any fully auto weapons. (No desire to be on the federal list is a major reason)
My 8 yr old grandson is an extremely good shot with handguns and rifles.
Shooting has been a regualar recreational activity in our family for a few generations now.
Happiness is indeed a warm gun...
Those of you who disparage the shooting sports... you should try it some time.
My neice brought her anti gun boy friend out for Thanksgiving a few years back. He started the same empty (stupid) rants several posts here are making. At the end of their 4 day visit, after teaching him safety and the bacis of operating the different weapons, he was breaking clays and hitting what he aimed at. He was also dumping clips out of the AKs and AR and having fun with the rest of us. He continues to shoot.
Franco| 2.6.12 @ 12:34PM
Pity us poor New York City-ites. Look, blowing stuff up with booms and things is, well, a lot of fun, and this fact is something many otherwise sane people will never understand. None of those MG' s has ever, I bet, been used in a crime (war crime, perhaps, Lord knows the skeletons many of these veteran surplus weapons might have in their closeted pasts) or been used to shoot up a school, rob a bodega, or whatever.
I placed Knob Creek on my bucket list long ago but haven't had a chance to go yet. I have fired on full an MP-40 and a Sten gun, though. Maybe an MG 34 over the fireplace, hmmm...
mister Z| 2.6.12 @ 4:24PM
Diogenes, please inform us all as to what your hobbies are, so we can unilaterally disparage your choice of pastimes...or, perhaps you spend your free time trying to improve your Mensa score. Seriously, to what part of the unalienable right of '...the pursuit of happiness...' are you so opposed?
Ron| 2.6.12 @ 4:44PM
Golly, and none of those "evil" firearms jumped up and shot anyone! Won't the anti-gun people be shocked! (tongue in cheek there...)
bob alou| 2.6.12 @ 8:05PM
I know nothing, except the fact of my ignorance.
Diogenes.
We can assume that this is not you since you obviously don't.
DaddyBear | 2.6.12 @ 8:19PM
Great write-up! I live in Louisville, and we go out to Knob Creek to shoot all year long. It's a great place any day of the year. Too bad the spring shoot has been cancelled this year.
lyle| 2.7.12 @ 1:54PM
Why
lyle| 2.7.12 @ 1:55PM
Add question mark...
Richard Baker| 2.8.12 @ 11:18AM
During my Army Infantry days, I was able to fire:
M-60 machine gun
M-2 .50 caliber machine gun
M-16A1 rifle on "AUTO"
Always enjoyed any opportunity to shoot and we used to refer to the activity as "popping caps". The only downside was CLEANING after shooting. What a mess but worth the effort to shoot full automatic. Can definitely understand the attraction of this event.
JP| 2.13.12 @ 6:50AM
I should point out that Social Darwinism would have been strongly opposed by Darwin himself, who despised what he saw as racism among the British colonials. The evil man here was Herbert Spencer.