Napoleon's Flintlock Fowler is pictured in this undated handout photo provided by the National Firearms Museum. This 20 gauge Flintlock Fowler once belonged to Napolean Bonaparte (1769-1821). The firearm is part of the exhibition at the National Rifle Association's (NRA) National Sporting Arms Museum in Springfield, Mo. (REUTERS/National Firearms Museum/Handout via Reuters)
The Sun Times
The National Rifle Association has opened an elaborate museum in the American Midwest, displaying nearly 1,000 firearms, including those used by French Emperor Napoleon and Hollywood cowboy star John Wayne, along with subtle reminders of the campaign for the right to gun ownership.
The NRA National Sporting Arms Museum opened on Friday at a sprawling Bass Pro Shops outdoor retail store in Springfield, Mo., a politically conservative central U.S. city that is a gateway to the mountainous Ozarks region popular with tourists and hunters.
Admission is free to the 7,500-square-foot (697-square-metres) museum, which has detailed dioramas and displays that were a decade in the planning stages, said NRA officials.
"If you are a gun person, you are going to love this place," museum director Jim Supica says in an online video promoting the museum as "one of the premier firearms museums in the world."
