When “The Gun Store” in Las Vegas launched machine gun rentals in the late 1980s, they never knew they were going to create a whole new driver for Vegas tourism.
But as CNN Money reports, that is exactly what store owner Bob Irwin did.
Tourists who come into The Gun Store “can fire an array of machine guns, including a World War II-era Schmeisser machine gun, a pink AK-47 with a ‘Hello Kitty’ decal and a belt-fed M249 that’s currently used by the U.S. Military in Afghanistan.”
Irwin says the “Hello Kitty guns” are popular with bachelorette parties. But he also sells packages “ranging from $100 to $1,000 for bachelor parties and even weddings.”
He said a lot of people come into his store because they “want to shoot the guns they see in movies.” For this reason, he keeps Israeli-made UZIs–popular in 1980s movies–on hand.
When The Gun Store began renting out machine guns they were the only store in town that did so, now competitors are plentiful. Irwin said others have realized there is money to be made in the machine gun rental business.
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