Las Vegas has long had a reputation as a city where anything goes. Many travel to "Sin City" for sex, drugs, gambling and other vices. While some of this reputation comes from books and films like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or The Hangover, the city has promoted itself as an adult playland with its "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" slogan.
One guilty pleasure offered to visitors to the Las Vegas Strip has grown in popularity in recent years: the opportunity to fire a fully-automatic weapon.
There are several gun ranges advertised along the Strip offering tourists the chance to imitate their favorite action movie star by firing a machine gun. And the customers continue to come, even after Sunday's demonstration of the very real human carnage those weapons are capable of inflicting.
Battlefield Las Vegas — which advertises a five-acre "military-style complex located just one block from the Las Vegas strip" — said it was "normal business like always" after the shooting that killed at least 59 people.
"From hand guns and pistols to fully automatic rifles, sub-machine guns to belt-feds and .50 calibers, we have it all here at Battlefield Vegas!" the range says on its website. For the "ultimate adrenaline rush," the range also offers the chance to shoot a M-134 Minigun, which fires more than 4,000 rounds a minute.
The Vegas Machine Gun Experience offers customers the chance to "get behind the trigger of the most legendary machine guns, handguns and shotguns" and "blast away at life-size targets."
Bullets and Burgers gives guests age 12 and older the chance to shoot "the actual firearms used in several Hollywood hits including Jumanji and Rambo II." Customers can fire everything from a Glock 17C to a Browning .50 caliber machine gun and M203 grenade launcher. After "getting the adrenaline pumping" customers then get a burger, fries and soda as part of the package.
