Firearm Collectors

Firearm Collectors: Preserving the History of Arms

Collectors, curators and collecting associations keep the physical record of firearms history intact. Their collections, museums, research and published references document how arms were designed, made and used, and that record gives 2A advocates accurate history to draw on when the past is cited in court cases and policy debates. Many collecting groups have met for decades and maintain archives that would otherwise be lost.

Minuteman University.com currently lists about 10 collectors and collecting organizations below, including individual collectors, museum founders, historians and long-running associations. Each profile outlines the person’s or group’s collection, research and contributions.

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J.M. Davis: Claremore, Oklahoma mayor whose collection, described as the largest privately held firearm collection in the world, became a museum opened in 1969.
Bill Woodin: Co-founded the International Ammunition Association in 1955 and compiled a collection of 160,000 cartridges.
Ye Connecticut Gun Guild: Founded in 1944 to preserve, study and collect antique firearms, it has met monthly ever since and has more than 350 members.
Kentucky Rifle Association: Traces its origins to the 1920s and published Kentucky Rifles and Pistols, 1750–1850 in 1975.
Ashley Hlebinsky: Curator of the Cody Firearms Museum from 2011 to 2020 who testified before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee in 2021.
Logan Metesh: Firearm historian whose past work includes the Smithsonian Institution, the National Park Service and the NRA Museum.