I was going into this museum with a plan to spend there no more than an hour — hour and half. I mean, how long do you need to look at guns, amirite? Wrong.
The museum collection is huge. For the first ten minutes I was under the impression that they just stuck all these rifles into glass cases so tightly because they’re all the same and there’s nothing to see here. Obviously, I was wrong, that every gun was extremely unique in its own way, had a history, and was a piece of art. When I finally got out of the room, hosting Robert E. Petersen’s collection of double rifles and Gatlings, art subsided (though not completely) and I realized how much I still have to see.
Almost every tourist guide mentions that the museum is small. I think it’s a misdirection. The museum is small — for the amount of exhibits it has. It is definitely in need of more room. 3,000 pieces, each with their own history, need more room.
Because the museum “opens” with Petersen’s collection, I was first confused as to how it is organized. It was going between flintlock pistols, Lefaucheux pistols, to Colt Combat Commander in a turn of a head. I can’t say I have completely figured it out but it’s gotten easier once the pure historical pavilions started.
Next collection went through several rooms while telling the story about firearms from early days of 14th to 17th century, to the American West of early 20th century. From the arms that were an essential part of early American exploration. Wheellock rifles, matchlock muskets, Spanish blunderbuss — how the West was won. To the Annie Oakley guns, Sharps, and the “weird and wonderful” prototypes.
At some point in the middle of my journey, I caught up with a couple on what looked like an early date (I got to the museum around 9:30 AM). The gentlemen, despite his young age, was extremely knowledgeable in history and history of arms. So for about 40 minutes I had a pleasure of listening to what was an absolutely amazing guided tour through a section of a museum. The guy knew his guns, that’s for sure — not only he was sharing what the guns were, but also — why they were the way they were, what were the circumstances that required these guns to be designed in a certain way.
The abundance of the artifacts in the museum has a downside. Each room, each case has the so-called “gems” — firearms that have significant historical value. It could be an oldest firearm in the collection (1350 hand cannon), a left-handed example of a Kentucky rifle, or Viet Cong handmade smoothbore copy of 1911. Thankfully, there are computer stands everywhere so you can look things up and read about them — if you have time.
A separate case is dedicated to police guns, as well as guns, confiscated by the police. I got to admit, I did not expect to find both Calico, and 18th century blunderbuss in this specific case.
A separate room is dedicated to movie guns. This is, of course, a far cry from IMFDB, but it’s fun to see what really hides behind an imperial blaster, what was Mal Raynolds (from Firefly) gun made of, and what’s inside every Luger in every World War 2 movie.
At the end I have admitted to myself that the 3 hours I’ve spent there covered probably about 25% of what I wanted to see and about 10% of what I wanted to take a picture of. So I’ll probably be back. Most likely.
