Most folks use rifles for hunting or pistols for protection, but it's all about sport and history for one "machine gun" group.

In Scioto County gun enthusiasts defend their hobby despite constant calls for reform.

No doubt it’s an expensive hobby with $25 spent in two seconds.A machine gun shoot in Minford, Ohio over the weekend drew a big and diverse crowd.

Alan Kisling of Belleville, Ohio even brought along his son Scott.

"I'm trying to get him involved in this just for something for him and I to do together as we get older," Kisling said.

For many, this is a once-a-year opportunity to shoot some of the most powerful weapons in the world.

"Some of this stuff you'd never see except in a museum, but in a place like this, you can actually see it, smell it, hear it, and actually go down and rent and actually shoot something that you would only see in a museum, so it's pretty neat," Dave Burch of Jamestown, Ohio said.

Most of the weapons at this shoot are fully automatic or machine guns.

Newer models can only be owned by dealers and law enforcement, but the older weapons manufactured before 1986, can be owned by anybody with a clear record.

"There's a lot of misinformation out there a lot of people don't realize that fully automatic firearms can be owned by even civilians and such and this gives people the opportunity to enjoy them," Keith Laframboise from Bay City, Michigan said.

But make no doubt, there is a concerted effort to ban these deadly weapons.

Groups like the Brady Campaign said automatic and semi-automatic weapons have no place in a civil society and they said the numbers back them up.

In 2004, countries like Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand and Sweden saw only a few hundred gun deaths combined, in the U.S. more than 11,000 people were shot to death in just one year.

Organizers of this shoot, however, said those numbers are misleading.

While the U.S. does lead the industrialized world in gun-related deaths very few are traced back to machine guns.

The gun debate will likely intensify with the upcoming presidential race.

Candidates like Hillary Clinton have taken a moderate approach supporting gun control but also supporting the second amendment.

Many argue Kerry was wrong and talking too much about gun control can cost you an election.