You don’t hear too many tourists coming to the United States to shoot firearms. But it is a fact according to the U.S. Travel/Trade, its in many of the wealthy Chinese tourists buckets of things to do in the U.S.
In China, you cannot own a firearm, air rifle or even a toy gun. Having a toy gun can land you some jail time. Which obviously has created an odd tourism opportunity here.
Enter Dickson Wong, who is a marksman with a deep interest in firearms. He arranges tours for groups of chinese tourists who are gun enthusiasts to travel to DeSoto County, FLordia for a shooting outing.
Wong gives chinese tourists a chance to experience “real gun culture” here in the U.S., otherwise impossible to do in China.
Gun tourism is a growing business in the U.S. because of lax laws regulating firearms compared to other countries. Currently, Honolulu attracts target shooters from Japan, and Las Vegas has many firing ranges available to domestic and foreigners.
Regardless, of the strict gun control in China, sales of replica guns is sky high through various websites. Ironically, China is one of the world’s largest small arms producers, including the Norinco company which makes a variety of small arms, many of them are clones of popular firearms produced in various countries.
Photo from WSJ
Sources: travel.trade.gov, Range365, USAtoday, David Maccar, Dickson Wong
