Wild, Wild East Japanese Tourists Have A Blast Shooting Pistols At Guam Gun Clubs

After sunny beaches, tropical fishing and a helicopter ride over Guam, Japanese tourist Hiroyasu Shimuzu thought it was time for something a little different.

So he picked up a .44-caliber Magnum and started shooting.

Not in the street, but at the Wild West Gun Club, one of more than a dozen firing ranges in Guam catering to Japanese aching to do something they just can’t do at home - play with guns.

“It was real loud … but a lot of fun to handle. I’ll be back,” said Shimuzu, 49, on a four-day trip to the lush Pacific island with colleagues from his Tokyo printing company.

Japan’s gun laws are much stricter than those in the United States, and ordinary people rarely even see guns.

But that gun control stuff goes out the window at Wild West.

A picture of John Wayne with a rifle hangs over the window looking into the indoor shooting range, where customers wearing ear cups and plastic eye protectors fire away. Rifles and pistols are displayed on the wall, and customers can dress up in chaps and fringe coats and pose for pictures on a saddle while they wait to shoot.

Wild West opened in 1980 as the island’s first gun club and “99.99 percent” of the customers are Japanese tourists, said owner Russell Young. There are about 16 of the clubs on Guam, he said, adding that similar clubs have opened in Saipan and Hawaii.

“In Japan, guns are just unheard of, even to touch, so just to come to Guam and shoot a real gun is attractive in itself,” he said.

The clubs are especially popular among Japanese businessmen, though families also visit the Wild West, which features go-carts and horse rides to keep the rest of the family occupied while dad shoots the place up.

“The older guys, they have a glass of wine or two and want to do something wild,” said supervisor John Quidachay.

Customers have a choice of .22-caliber Smith & Wesson pistols, .38-caliber Ruger pistols, .44-caliber Magnums and even an Uzi and AR-15 semi-automatic rifles. The prices run from $25 to $70.

After a 15-minute training session, would-be gunslingers fire at a paper target. The guns - particularly the Magnums - thunder as the range fills with the scent of gunpowder.

All of the customers get a certificate, their used target sheet and a photo of themselves in action. The top two scorers of the year win a round-trip ticket back to Guam to shoot again.

Wild West is sedate compared to some other places. At the nearby USA Gun Club, for example, a mounted machine gun is displayed outside the door. Hanging on the wall are photos of Clint Eastwood and used targets where customers have written things like “Japanese sniper.”

Supervisor Tom Honda pointed to the .44-caliber Magnum.

“When we say this is the gun Dirty Harry used, they get excited,” he said.

The gunplay does have its dark side - Japanese have occasionally committed suicide at the clubs, though Young says that’s never happened at Wild West.

Ammunition sometimes explodes and the panes of protective plastic at the Wild West firing stations have occasional bullet holes.

To help keep the guns pointing toward the target, most places have a rope or cable strung from the barrel to the counter where the shooter stands, stopping the customer from walking away with the gun. Walls between shooters provide some protection for other customers, but it’s still possible for a customer to twist the gun toward himself.

Young says he plans to install a pulley system that would hold the gun in place and make it impossible for customers to point their weapons anywhere but into the range.

Still, Mitsuko Matsumura of Osaka was on edge when her 13-year-old son Kenta - who passed the 55-inch height minimum - picked up a .22-caliber Smith & Wesson and tensely aimed at the target.

“It’s a little scary - that gun is so heavy,” she said.

An instructor stood behind Kenta, and her husband urged the boy on with an enthusiastic “Go for it,” then recorded the big moment with a video camera.

Most customers are eager for a new experience - and for a taste of old-style Americana.

Shimuzu, who went all the way and chose a combo course of a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson, a .44-caliber Magnum and a .45-caliber Colt, admired the sepia photograph of himself looking mean aiming the imposing Magnum.

“Wow, that gun is big, isn’t it!” he said.