GUNS Magazine March 1958

GUNS. PAST AND PRESENT. WERE THE PRIME OBJECTIVES OF
s EE RARE GUNS, buy at low European prices, visit
' museums and arsenals not open to the ~ublic, with
the First Annual Gun Tour of Europe," was the promise.
Exciting? Yes, and fulfilled. But not through any miracle
by Sabena Airlines that all this was done-Sabena got us
there but missed a connection-nor was it because our
tour conductor Bill Edwards was such a whiz at tour
arrangements-he wasn't, and he goofed several times-nor
was it our golden key of dollars for travel. Instead, we found
I
a universal element of friendship among the hundreds of
gun enthusiasts abroad who made our trip pleasant. That
good will by gun enthusiasts may be one of the world's
strongest common denominators for peace. Certainly, we
found many new friends in lands that had since childhood
been only romantic names-Venice, Monte Carlo, Brescia,
Neuhausen at the falls of the Rhine, Saint Etienne . . . all
these and more were on the Tour. To my wife, Stella, and
myself, it seemed like a second honeymoon . . . plus guns.
The Tour started from New York, where we had flown
from our home in Burbank, California, to meet the others
In neat, Modern Beretta factory guide
Amadi (left) shows 9mm gun to Edwards.
Hammerli was bought in Switzerland.
THIS UNIQUE GUIDED TOUR THROUGH EUROPE'S ARMORIES
By ROBERT PARKYN
of the group. Our schedule was by Sabena Belgian Airlines
to Manchester, England; then train to London. We met the
others of the group-George and Agnes Whittington of
Henderson, Kentucky; George Oberfell of Claremore,
Oklahoma, and his son-in-law Bob Demming of Kansas
City; Roger Dakin, of the Dakin Gun Company, importers
of San Francisco; and Val Forgett, Jr., youthful proprietor
of "Ma Hunter's: the machine gun seller. The Tour was
arranged by Bill Edwards who had met many of the people
we visited on previous trips to Europe, or knew of them in
connection with GUNS magazine.
.Across the Atlantic at night, the trip was smooth, like
riding in a bus. I didn't know then how apt the simile was,
for we were to cover over 4,500 kilometers via our own
17-passenger Chevrolet bus through seven countries, plus
England, before we were through.
In London, our first stop, we visited the Tower, and
were welcomed by Mr. A. Norris Kennard, Assistant to the
Master of the Armouries. Kennard knows the historical
value of guns made since 1800. These plain weapons have
35