Learned about the role firearms have played during the course of American History. Welcome to the nra National Firearms museum. Were going to go through the museum and take a look at the history of americans and their firearms. Well start with the earliest precolonial days, go up through current time. Well look at the role firearms have played in terms of the settlement and expansion of america, the goal firearms have played in military and sporting and personal shooting roles. Well see the guns of champions, the guns of president s and heroes, and well see some great pieces of art, firearms engraving on a steel canvas. The National Firearms museum is at nra headquarters in fairfax, virginia. Weve been in this location for about 15. Were custodians of about 7,000 firearms. We have about 3,000 on display here and about a thousand more that the nra National Sporting arms museum in springfield, missouri. What i want people to come away from the museum with beyond the wow, thats a lot of cool guns which is very important to us, but its an understanding of that unique relationship between american and their firearms, and very integral role firearms have played in the history of america. We have phil, a senior curator here at the National Firearms museum. Mr. Peterson was a magazine publisher and had one of the finest if not the finest firearms collection in the country. And what you see it is the peterson galilee which has been called the finest single room of firearms in the country. The music as jim said picked what we could display and that equalled about 425 guns. Perhaps one of the finest he donated was the grand royal winchester model 21. It was considered the best side by side shotgun ever manufactured. It was named by john n. Noits just a wonderful piece. In contrast to the traditional carved engraving is a relatively new style of engraving. Its only been widely done in the last 30 or 40 years, and when i say widely done there have been very few people who have mastered it. But instead of a threedimensional carving of the steel this type of engraving is actually done by hand pressing literally hundreds of thousands or even millions of tiny individual dots into the steel var yg in depth, angle and pressure and creating the incredible scenes that you see on these shotguns. For example, this gor goil scene on the reverse side of this shotgun. Its all done with hand pressed dots in the balino style. Annie oakley can be considered to be the First American female superstar. She was an entertainer. She was discovered when frank butler, an exhibition shooter was traveling town to town. And as an introduction to his show he challenged the best shooters to a shooting contest. Theres one they went to they brought out this 15yearold girl and she shot side by side and actually beat him. He came back a year later, married her and from then annie became the star. Little miss sure shot. Here we have a beautiful shotgun. It has an enlaid plaque. From the date and the location of this, london 1890 we can guess what the occasion of this presentation might have been because at that time annie was touring with the wild west show in europe and buffalo bill lent her some of his gunpowder. It was a different type and it blew up her shotgun. This may have been im sorry i blew up your shotgun gift from buffalo bill to annie oakley. One of the greatest additions are gatling guns designed back in 1861. He kind of saw it as his contribution to man kind not only just to the war effort but man kind. If he came up with a super weapon then people would want to cease to go to war against anyone armed with a gun. It was a series of barrel aligned that allowed the user to just crank a handle and fire as much as it could rotate. Mr. Peters had a collection of ten of them weave on display, and right now were pretty certain that ten gat llg guns on exhibition is the largest collection anywhere in the worlds on display. And well see very shortly a gatling gun that literally wrote itself into the pages of American History january 1, 1888. This particular exhibit is by harrington and richardson. It was made in 1876 for the philadelphia centennial exposition. This was considered by many to sort of be americas first entry into the field of a world fair type of event. Countries were invited from all over the world, manufacturers for being their finest wares. This particular piece not only has these wonderful decorated revolvers in it but its also the only surviving exhibit still intact from that 1876 philadelphia centennial exposition. We do have some fascinating oddities, curiosities from the collection and they are in this glass tabletop display cis case. The center piece here is a sundial gun. Now that served as a timepiece. You could load a blank powered charge and just the magnifying it was fired. You also have some of the early attempts at repeating firearms. There was an 18 shot pepperbox revolver from the mid1800s here and theres a four barrel plant lock can be arranged so the entire cluster can be rotated to have two more shots. There is a harmonica style gun which was an early competitor for the revolver where instead a rotating cylinder there is a bar with successful charges in it that can be slid from one round to the next as successful shots are needed. A nephew of the czar, there is a long knife or short sword here with a pistol mounted on it. That was actually for boar hunting. A couple of odd looking guns here. This one with the giant vspring and the flintlock over here with the circular device on it are not actually guns but gunpowder testers. These were made to test the power of black powder that was made in individual batches and you had to be sure the powder level the powder was neither too much nor too little for its intended use. The museum as it opened in 1998 features 3,000 different items. In this case we have actually one of the oldest guns on display in america. One of the oldest guns in the world actually. Its called a hand canon. Its just a gigantic iron tube with a hole that runs from the muzzle to the breach and a pe perpen tickular. So not only is one of the oldest guns in the world its probably one of the oldest guns on display in america, and its one of the worlds first guns which in effect were actually canons. It was from the large that we moved down to the shoulder size guns. And jim, has a spectacular piece that not only is smaller but displayed the wheel lauock mechanism. Just as successful a successor that followed soon after was complicated. When people ask me what is in the nra museum theres always two to illustrate. This is one of them. This is a wheel lock carving, a very complicated firearm but it came over on the may flower. I say we go from one of the very first firearms on the northeast or American Continent and we go through to a revolver recovered from the ashes of the World Trade Center and everything in between. As we said earlier we tried to design and build a museum with display cases, balries evavocative of the time period. Attempting to tell the story of the early colonial period and the war of independence, 1775 to 1781. Were looking right now at a painting which we actually had to go to London England to find. Its called a shot heard around the world. And within of the most beautifully rendered illustrating described fired on Lexington Green on 1775. Along with the flint it tells the story of the encounter with the british that misty morn ing april. The question a lot of people have and i said as a kind growing up why is it one misty morning in april when 70minute men answered the night paul revere and he looked at his men and said dont fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war let it begin here. And then 300 red coated british regulars under the charge, a shot was fire asked the American Revolution began. Why was it that marning adiffer the others. The general had given him written orders that morning to go to this place and remove all muskets, ammunition, powder, shot and artillery. There were actually guns this morning. That was the line in the sand. That was the point of no return. Thats what started the war for independence, and thats what led america on its path that we still are traveling down today of freedom and liberty and how firearms played that role to not only acquiring liberty but maintaining it ever since. When were talking about american firearms and innovation a lot of Different Things can be brought to the table for conversation. But one of earliest is what we nucall the american long rifle. Its sometimes called a pennsylvania or kentucky, but truly its an american long rifle because immigrants from europe from all corners of europe brought with them rifle making skills and began to setup shops in literally every colony and eventually every state in the union and manufacture guns. You can look at these long rifles that we have right here and just by looking at the curvature of the stock tell exactly what county and what state these long rifles are from. They are truly works of american folk art and are very valuable just in their own right today. Perhaps one of the most historically significant guns in the collection in my opinion is this wonderful little air rifle right here. Now, originally this gun was designed by an italian for the Austrian Army to use against napoleon. How one ended up in the hands of the corp of discovery or as we call it the lewis and Clark Expedition from 1803 to 1806 is a mystery. The reason we place so much historical value on this particular firearm is because in the journals of the lewis and Clark Expeditions lewis writes about this gun not once but 39 separate entries. And each entry is pretty much similar to the one before. He says something along the lines of today we meant the men at the head waters of the missouri river. I had the men parade before them in their class a uniforms, ordered the uncasing and unfurling of the regimental and national colors. We walked in under fife and drum and presented the presence of continues bearing the likeness of president jefferson back in washington in two hands collapsed in friendship. And then i demonstrated the air rifle to which they all found to be of wonderment and amazement. And theres the key. Every single time you meet a new tribe of indians, he demonstrates the air rifle. You also have to read into this is never during the trip did he ever allow the indians to actually gain access to the keel or know how much he had in the twa way of supplies, provisions or armament. When the indians when they saw this almost repeating rifle fired with great accuracy and tremendous effect and power, almost unendingly fire. They were amazed. Nobody had ever seen anything like that, and so they were very cordial not knowing whether there was just one of these guns or 39 of them. And its what led the 39 members from st. Louis to the cascades and Pacific Ocean without having been overwhelmed and attacked and wiped out by any of the bands of theinate c nativeamern the western plain. This air rifle was able to present such intimidation they were happy to be hosts and move them onto the next tribe to the west. The kentucky rifle was perfect for the woods of the eastern u. S. But as the American West changed from kentucky, tennessee and ohio to the great plains and the Rocky Mountains a different type of rifle was needed, and thats where we see the introduction of the plains rifle. Now, this time st. Louis was the gateway to the west, and this is where a lot of the trappers and pilgrims and settlers would buy their supplies to make the trip. And this is where the hawken brothers had their shop. They created the plain rifle, it was a larger caliber than the american long rifle to deal with the American West, the bison, the elk, where the big bears. It was easier carried on horseback. This gentlemen is rifling the barrel, cutting grooves into it to put a spin on the led bullet to increase speed range and accuracy. In the early 1800s one of the main focuses in firearms design was to try and develop an effective repeating rifle. And sam colt is the guy who really came up with the first widely adopted repeating firearm, but it was not success at first try. It was a matter of try, try again. He created a revolver with a revolving Cylinder Holding five rounds that could be advanced and then pull the trigger. He was looking for financial backing for his New Invention demonstrating it to his father to try and get the financial backing. But its said the revolver blew up while he was demonstrating it, which discouraged the financial backing. Its said colt went back to doing a number of things to earn his living. Theres a report he would tour county fairs, demonstrating nitrous oxide to the crowd. But eventually he got back into the Manufacturing Business in patterson, new jersey, and came up with these are what are now called colt patterson revolvers. They look unusual to us. They have a folding trigger and they also were a miserable failure. Now, he had gone out of business gr given up an these. But a man who had served as a texas ranger had used these revolves in texas and felt they were exactly what the military needed for the wars and skirmishes along the texasmexico border. Came back to koeask him to make sale. His name was sam walker and this colt became known as the walker model. As you can see it was a big heavy revolver pushing almost 5 pounds in weight. Too powerful for the metallurgy at the time. He shortened the cylinder, came out with the lagoon model and from that point on the Colt Firearms Manufacturing Company was off on a road to success and established itself as an iconic american firearms manufacturer. This crazy little room contraption was a lave developed by thomas lanchard and installed in the Springfield Army in massachusetts in the early 1800s, and this was one of the first machines that started the American Industrial movement and revolution. It works just like you would copy a key at a Hardware Store today. This is just the beginning of interchangeable and massproduced parts. And we see this in the gun industry. We dont see this in any of the other industries burging in america and especially in new england during the early 1800s, but it really manifests itself with this rifle right here, a halls bo halls beach leader made right here in virginia. But it becomes not only one of the First Military adopted breach loading firearms of the United States, but it also drew the first guns to begin the use of Manufacturing Processes that see the development of interchangeability in part and yes Assembly Lines production so that when colt got that letter jim was talking about from sam walker, the texas ranger, asking for 1,000 guns which he didnt have the factory to make them in he turned to one guy in new england that could do something about it. Whitney had a factory north of new hacven, connecticut, he was able to turn out all 1,000 in a six month period of time because he used every part not only for the woods but the metal as well. That is really where the Industrial Revolution begins in this country and spresds to the rest of the world. Samuel colt takes nine single action 1850 revolvers to the Crystal Palace in london in 1851 and displays them before prince albert. And the rest of the attending audience was shocked really to see nine guns being torn apart and reaassembled without any care to the gun they previously came from. Anything up to this time had been hand fitted and filed. Where in the past these things would take weeks if not months to manufacture a whole cloth. In december 1940 during a fireside chat Franklin Roosevelt tells the whole nation the storm clouds that darkped europe are going to soon darken our shore. But all of our present efforts are not enough. We must have more ships, more guns, more planes, more of everything. We must be the great arsenal of democracy. For us this is an emergency as serious as war itself. America must become the arsenal of democracy, he says. A year before pearl harbor. Not only do we make 5 million in one grant, 5 million in one pardon, and thats just a farm we make it enough to arm and quip the 16 million men and women we put in the unionfirm and millions of our allies to defeat fascism in europe in 1945 and in the south bisque as well. It was this zilgs revolution that gives us the capability to almost a century later maintain the freedom that americans have so hard fought for in the intervening years. Now on american artifacts the second part of our visit to the nras National Firearms museum in fairfax, virginia. On my left represents the union and on my right inconfederacy. The first exhibit case we see numerous examples of the carvings the union was using. This was a time of rapid advance and firearms design going from the traditional muzzle loaders to beach loaders and eventually to repeating rifles. Its one of the actual sharps carvings that john brown used in his raid on marpers ferry. O one of the events that initiated the civil war. This exhibit illustrates the manufacturing might of the north where they could turn out thousands of hundreds of thousands of well fitted, well manufactured firearms that were ready to go to work. In the back you see a barrel rifling late that was used by smith and wesson from the civil war and cleared up by the time of world war ii. This manufacturing capability was certainly one of the norths strengths in the civil war. The south, on the other hand, did not have the industrial might that the north had. As we talked earlier the new england and connecticut valley was the home of dozens of gun manufacturers. In fact, the 1861 modelsprifield so many were needed by the union army at one time that 33 different manufacturers were turned out withhe identical same rifle for purchase for the u. S. Army. The confederate were left up to their own to procure and manufacture firearms. They had a few places in harpers ferry, virginia, when they actually had possession of it. But they could hardly supply the needs of the confederacy. They got most of their guns either from captured during battle from the yankees or imparted from overseas. In fact, the finest infantry rifle in the world in 1816 was the british mfield. At the end of the day when the war came to its conclusion in april 1865 general lee rote saying that after four years of arduous service unsurpassed by fortitude the army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield. The war could have gone on for literally years had lee asked his men to take to the mountains and conduct a guerilla campaign. But it came to its conclusion after lee wrote those orders and after the many victory parades and testimonials, a number of Union Officers got together and tried to evaluate what exactly had happened during those four years. Because once the numbers were being crunched when took a long time to actually evaluate there were over 650,000 casualties in the american civil war. When you lookout right at the end of a battle, there were 75 dead confederates and 150,000 dead union soldiers. Thats gunshot artillery on the battlefield dd, and by 1871 a lot of the officers were beginning to realize it was a year round thing winning that war. The confederates had been outresourced on every single level except for accuracy and marksmanship. They felt if a National Emergency ever came about again there was a need to increase the marksmanship skills. So if we had a nation of riflemen we would stand a better chance to survive the next National Emergency. And many years before Samuel Clemons issued his wonderful novel, tom sawer where tom decides to help his friends find the fun in whitewashing fence, the gentleman that formed the National Rifle association in 1871 felt we could increase marksmanship by organizing a competition around it. Also within civilian shooting hubs throughout the country, if we make this a competition we make marksmanship a skill, itll be something that a lot of people want to participate in. And by 1876 shooting competitions were the largest spectator sport in the history of the country to that time. And that was the birth of the nalg rifle association, it and to this day remains one of our primaries aims and objectives to provide marksmanship throughout not only the armed forces but the civilian population as well. On the foreside of this cabinet we have the guns that are traditionally thought of as the guns that won the west. The winchester lever rifle and colt along with other colts. But colts and winchesters werent the only guns in the American West. On this side we see the other manufacturers that played a significant role. The remington handguns, certainly the remington single shot rifle, rolling block played a major role with the buffalo hunters. There are also the smith and wesson revolvers. Smith and wesson was actually turning out even more revolvers than colt was at the time. Both were very popular but also numerous other examples of guns used in the west. Other manufacturers are well represented. Our newest exhibit at the National Firearms museum is a set of artifacts were very proud to have on loan from Theodore Roosevelts home place. Its currently undergoing a complete restaurant. And while theyre working on that, they lent us the firearms and numerous other artifacts from roosevelts home. I want to show you a little bit more what we got from the National Park service. Back when the music was being designed in the mid90s we wanted to take a corner of the museum and focus on the president. We felt as a life member of the nra as well we ought to put a little tribute of him together here. So we decided to replicate the library from sagamore hill almost on a 1 to 1 scale. His daughter ethel said it was the Gathering Place of the house. Where theodore had books against the wall we traded those in for gun cases. But it was this room, the library that was literally the oval office of the summer white house from 1902 to 1908. And out of the 10,000 artifacts were very fortunate to have about 115 original priceless treasures from Theodore Roosevelts home on display here. So this is the working desk of the president from 1902 to 1908. Trappings of his African Safari are seen with one of the several lions he shot with the rhinosren horns. This wasnt just a trophy but also done under the us pauspice the museum of history. This is one of four guns that actually accompaniened roosevelt and the rough riders to cuba in july of 1898. And one of the most important guns in American Military history is seen right behind it lost for over 114 years, the very first machine gun ever used by the United States army in military combat. It is an 1895 browning automatic rifle. Its called the potato digger. It is a 7 millimeter mouser. It was privately moufrped, one of two given by the wealthy families to the rough riders and taken to cuba. In this case the specific gun was donated by and so the cane sisters gave their older brother one of the first the first machine gun ever used in military combat by the United States army. In this cabinet very fortunate to have on display colonel Theodore Roosevelt brooks mothers made tunic, his 1872 cavalry saver. Its interesting to note that when a United States president leaves the white house hes referred to as mr. President for the rest of his life. Except there are two exceptions. General eisenhower requested to be called general eisenhower until his death. Where everybody could hear and remember he said, no, howard taft is your president. I am now just colonel roosevelt, and thats the way he stayed for the rest of his life, preferring to be remembered as the colonel commanding the first United States regimen of volunteers, the rough riders. Its a wonderful opportunity for the National Firearms museum to be the temporary custodones tr literally from our nations attic. A number of firearms that his six children enjoyed using, eldest son, and his second son served in the world war i and world war ii, and died at fort richardson, alaska. Archie roosevelt was given 100 from disabilities received, and the only in history to receive disbill tre disabilities from world war i and world war ii. The firearms they used both in the service for recreation around sagamra hill and in the s safari in africa are wonderful artifacts. One of my favorite stories is of the winchester model 94 in 3030. If you look closely, theres a muzzle on that mounted. And his son said our father liked to take this gun in particular hunting out across the estate early in the morning dispatchi dispatching varmints with it, and it was quiet and did not wake the neighbors. If you can imagine somebody today strolling across their lawn with a silenced rifle dispatching rabbits and the like, quite a difference 100 years have made. Its hard to think of a better transitional figure from the 19th century to the 20th century, and we move into the galleries covering the 20th century here with a focus on the evolution of the bold action rifle beginning in the later part of the 19th century with four prototypes the mauser brothers used to develop their famous bold action rifle. We pay homage to famous designers, and the most of those being john moses browning, the greatest designer that ever lived and more of a modern day designer, william raouger, the founder of the ruger company, and this is a savage model 99 that he converted into a semiaction rifle. When he went to get a job at springfield, instead of a resume he brought in this rifle and was hired on the spot. One of the great leaps forward in evolution and design of firearms begins to take place in the 1880s when we move from and transition from black powder to smokeless powder. Up until now you would pour the powder down the muzzle and the black powder would leave a thick residue called fouling in the barrel, and it would tend to constrict the apiture. With breech loading arms, the smokeless powder would let you fire more rapidly. By 1881, a machine gun was developed that was one pull of a trigger and would allow the action, of fire, eject and reload. The rates on these guns go from 400 to 1,200 rounds a minute. With the development of smokeless powder and new firing mechanisms, america finds itself in the First World War in april of 1917 with new types of firearms they never before had used. By the second world war, our m1 grand rifle was the only semiautomatic infantry rifle that was standard issue to the military of any country in world war ii. Grant it, other countries had semiautomatics, but the United States armed all of our guys with the m1 rifle, some calling it the best rifle ever devised and it played a key victory in the spring and summer of 1945. We move into the galleries that show the firearms of the competition shooting sports, starting with the shot guns used in trap, skeet, sporting plays. Moving to the firearms of the olympic competitions, including a number of guns that have won gold medals for the u. S. In the olympics and the gold medals that were won with them. Were into some of the fun aspects of the National Firearms museum beginning with the 1950s era kids room. This is not what my room looked like but its what i wanted it to look like. I had the coon skinned cap, and i wanted the night light but my mom wouldnt let me have it because she was sure it would set the house on fire. We have the original coney island shooting gallery and it was established in the early 20th century, and it has gone from Steam Powered to electric powered. This is one of the most popular galleries in the National Firearms museum, and in here we have over 120 guns from 80 years of hollywood films beginning with the first revolver that was used by john wayne and his first credited role and going through oscar winners such as hurt locker and old country for old men. And dirty harrys model 29 smith wessen revolver. When you talk about famous movie lines and famous guns and movies, go ahead, make my day, and that 44 magnum is probably the most widely recognized firearm on earth. Certainly made extremely popular by a whole series of dirty harry films. And some of the firearms like you see in front of it is rubber dummy guns, and these are guns being thrown into the river, and great sound editing makes it sound like they are actually medal and wood hitting the cobble stones. All of these guns are real firearms manufactured by colt, smith wessen, and there are a lot of great pieces, and bruce willis was the same gun used in lethal weapon. Tom selleck is a very generous benefactor to the museum, and not only has he lent his guns from the personal collection but also guns from his films like quickly down under. We have three of the guns that made the commemoratives in the close of his magnum p. I. Series. This was used in the 1939 film. Of course, next to that is an original gun that was used by Richard Winmark used in the alamo with john wayne back in the 60s. And then the film, truly one of the stars is this beltfed machine gun. In fact, they went through a quarter of a million blanks using this gun in the final scene of the great shootout at the headquarters south of the border. If you look at the ammo box here, you can still see some of the fake blood spatter that splashed up on the ammo box during the final scene. To close things out with the hollywood guns, for somebody that grew up in a house that wasnt firearms friendly as a kid, there were no guns in the house, it was through the movies and televisions that i gained my love and admiration of firearms, what they meant to American History, especially all the military and cowboy films i was so enamored with. It helps to establish a connection with the stars on the Silver Screen we grew up honoring, and most of us before we were old enough to have an opportunity to have or handle a firearm of our own. In the hunting galleries of the National Firearms museum, we have our largest rifle and our largest shotgun. The rifle on exhibit is a fourbore rival and thats a rifle that throws a quarter pound of led with each shot. This particular rifle was used by stanley on the expedition to find dr. Livingston in africa. Across from it we have the shotgun exhibit and on the bottom of the display case is a massive shotgun. This was a punt gun and not fired from the shoulder and it was braced in a small boat and would be loaded with up to a pound of shot, and it would be used to get up to 100 foul in one shot. For a number of years in the 1800s, this type of gun would provide water foul for sale to markets and to restaurants. One of the last galleries in the National Firearms museum is dedicated to Law Enforcement and its here that we have the other gun that i believe brackets our firearms stories here at the museum. This is far from one of the most impressive guns to initially look at. Its very beaten up and the finish is burnt off it and the steel is twisted. This is a gun carried into the World Trade Center by new York Police OfficerWalter Weaver on september 11th, 21. Officer weaver never came out but the revolver was recovered from the ashes, and he was a strong supporter of the nra and a enthusiastic supporter, and we have it as a reminder of those that put their lives on the line to serve and protect. This is the story of americans and their guns and we want them to leave here with a newfound appreciation and understanding of the role that firearms have played throughout our nations history. It was firearms that led the industrial growth of this country. It was our ability to create firearms in a mass production type of scale that enabled us to manufacture anything at all during world war ii and to help stop fascism in its tracks. Firearms play a huge role in the development of the nation, not just teaching women and children and men how to shoot to defend thepl selves, americans and their guns is a significant and seminal part of our American History. Tonight on American History tv, beginning at 8 00 eastern, a look at why june is lgbtq pride month. Six days of protests began on june 8th 1969 after a raid on a gay club and it proved to be a key turning point in the gay rights movement. Its a documentary history, stonewall riots. Watch American History tv tonight and over the weekend on cspan 3. Coming up this weekend, on the civil war, the 1863 bread richmond diets, where they protest inflation and the scarcity of food, and then four films from the 1940s and 50s profiling the auto, dairy and airlines industries negatively affected today by the coronavirus pandemic. And then the nixon administrations native reforms and a new era of self government. Exploring the american story. Watch American History tv this weekend on cspan 3. Cspan has coverage of Public Policy events, and you can watch it on television, online or listen to it on our free radio app, or be part of the conversation through the Washington Journal Program or through social media feeds. Cspan, created by media as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Up next on American History tv, a conversation from the texas book festival with the author of the