World's Largest Machine Gun Shoot

Festival Location: Westpoint, KY, USA

Festival State: Kentucky Festivals

Festival Type: Bizarre Festivals

By: © Nelson Taylor 2009

Men love guns. In the south, men and women love guns. In Kentucky men and women and children and their dogs love big friggin' guns able to turn an old refrigerator to scrap. For a long weekend twice a year (April and October), an estimated 10,000 folks come out of the woodwork for the World's Largest Machine Gun Shoot in Westpoint, KY. Most bring high-tech weapons like AK47s, M16s, and Maxim guns. Others bring some real heavy duty shit. Kenny Sumner, whose father started the shoot in the early 70s, says, "Whatever they can bring in here they can shoot." Tanks? Yes, a tank or two always make an annual appearance, and yes, they always blast an old beater off its wheels.

But you don't have to be a militia member to enter the grounds of the Knob Creek Gun Range. Anybody with $7 can come in. Machine guns can be rented for $15. And if flames are your game, try a flame-thrower out on a Chevy Impala for about $50. And if you're hankering for a little competition, for $25 you can borrow a pistol or a shotgun and maneuver through a police training course blowing away silhouettes of bad guys. There is also the Sub Gun Jungle Walk ($10), where contestants run rather than walk through a course searching for hidden targets to blast with a sub machine gun capable of letting loose 600-800 rounds per minute. But the highlight of the event is the Saturday Night Shoot, where the whole crew gathers to wield their weapons and light up the night. "It's sort of like the 4th of July with machine guns," Sumner says. "It's a big barrage of tracer bullets and flames, a nice solid roar of weaponry."

While you won't find any cultural fluff like arts, crafts, entertainment or local cuisine, there are guns, guns and more guns. Exhibitors from all over the world spread out their motley munitions on 600-plus 8-foot tables for buying, selling and swapping. Who knows, maybe those of you who show up without a machine gun may decide to go postal and pick up your first ultimate Uzi.