Fastest Guns in the West : ‘Speed Challenge’ Show Doubles as a Rally Against Weapons Ban

One man brought a .50-caliber rifle that shot six-inch bullets. Another one-upped him with a homemade cannon that used bowling balls for ammunition. A mother brought her 7-year-old daughter--and part of the family arsenal.

Talk about a show of force.

About 200 gun enthusiasts gathered in the mountains above Azusa on Sunday, clutching AK-47s, PWA Commandos and other semiautomatic weapons as they mowed down clay pigeons in rapid-fire.

For the shooters, the biannual “Speed Challenge” was part shooting contest, and part political rally, on the eve of the July Fourth holiday.

They came to protest the federal and state laws that forbid the manufacture and sale of weapons much like the ones they were using--the federal law authored by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and the state’s by former state Sen. David A. Roberti.

The gun advocates insisted that the semiautomatic weapons, which hold up to 100 rounds of ammunition, serve legitimate purposes--such as Sunday’s shooting contests.

“These are not killer machines, they’re highly sophisticated target shooters,” said T.J. Johnston, a National Rifle Assn. board member and founder of the Anaheim-based Gun Owners Action Committee, which planned the contest.

Many of the contestants were using assault weapons that were purchased before the laws went into effect, and thus were legal under the measure’s “grandfather” clauses. But event organizers conceded that a few contestants were probably using illegal firearms, though they followed a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

Feinstein and Roberti bristled at the notion that members of the group may have openly defied the laws.

“Think about it--target shooting with assault weapons,” Roberti said. “What precision, what skill. If they believe this has anything to do with target practice, it makes it doubly frightening because the guns are in the hands of ignoramuses.”

Feinstein also questioned the idea of using high-powered weaponry to measure skill.

“If you need an assault weapon to hit a clay pigeon, you’re not much of a shot,” she said. “I’m impressed with someone who can hit a target with one bullet, not someone who needs a clip of bullets.”

Participants in Sunday’s contest, held at the Burro Canyon Shooting Park in Angeles National Forest, included a handful of law enforcement officials, among them two U.S. Navy investigators. They called the event legitimate, legal and safe.

“This is not an everybody-go-out-and-break-the-law event,” said Leo Lamont, 29. “I’ve put people in jail for possessing illegal weapons. I haven’t seen anything here that’s illegal.”

Like many at the event, Lamont said he hoped to convey a message that the assault weapons bans are useless because they still leave criminals with numerous types of lethal weapons.

“We as lawmen do not encounter these types of semiautomatic weapons,” said Lamont’s co-worker, Keith Hueston, 39. “We see revolvers, .22-caliber rifles, shotguns.”

It was during the “firepower demonstration” at Sunday’s event that one contestant--who identified himself with a wink as “Thomas Jefferson”--brought out a Barrett Light .50-caliber semiautomatic rifle, the weapon that uses six-inch bullets, sending them 1,000 yards or more.

Then Bart Moutier fired his weapons: three homemade cannons that have become a featured attraction during the five years of the Speed Challenge.

The cannons shot 16-pound bowling balls toward the hills beyond the shooting range. Some tumbled back into the shooting range, but others traveled more than 1,000 feet, clearing the tops of the hills and rolling into the mountains beyond.

Sunday also was a day for family.

Colleen Janssen brought her 7-year-old daughter, Stephanie, who pulled out her .22-caliber rifle for visitors to see. “I like when the bullets punch out the middle of the targets, like Reese’s Pieces,” she said.

Her mother interjected: “She’s a real good shooter, real slow. She doesn’t shoot any semiautomatics, yet.”

Janssen, 35, said her family has a house full of guns that “make the Branch Davidians look like wimps.” But she said the weapons, which are locked in a safe, are not a threat to her daughter.

“I’m a lot more worried about her riding her bicycle in the neighborhood than being around our guns,” Janssen said.