How One Man Got Rich Selling Machine Guns

Frank Goepfert has built a lucrative business dealing in the rarest, deadliest and most valuable of firearms.
Joy and Frank Goepfert show off their collection at Midwest Tactical Inc.

Joy and Frank Goepfert show off their collection at Midwest Tactical Inc.

Photographer: Barrett Emke for Bloomberg

Over the past decade, patient investors benefited greatly from one of the longest economic expansions in U.S. history, using stocks, gold and even cryptocurrency as vehicles of profit. A few of them even used machine guns.

Yes, machine guns. Not the readily available, semi-automatic rifles that have figured so tragically in recent mass shootings, igniting a national furor over gun laws. We’re talking about actual machine guns, which are about as far from the local gun store inventory as you can get, and much more difficult to buy. A machine gun typically shoots about 600 to 800 rounds a minute, while the Bushmaster AR-15 will fire about 45 rounds a minute, depending on how fast you pull the trigger. Fully automatic firearms are often depicted in movies, but in real life they’re a rare commodity except to members of the military.