Targeting a market

Vernonia firm targets global firearms trade

By Rick Swart

The South County Spotlight, Jun 17, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (25 Reader comments)

Rick Swart / South County Spotlight

Lance Witham takes a look at a German-made MG34 machine gun that has been retrofitted with a mechanism that converted the firing mechanism from fully automatic to semi-automatic. Witham specializes in German firearms technology for TNW Firearms.

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Military surplus ammunition cases are stacked up like cordwood on pallets inside metal buildings hidden away in the woods near Vernonia.

A menacing sign in a window near the entrance forewarns visitors they have arrived at a “Top Secret Research Facility.”

Inside, Lance Witham, one of the world’s foremost authorities on German firearms technology, assembles a shiny new receiver meticulously milled out of steel into a MG34 semi-automatic replica of a machinegun used by the Nazi infantry in World War II. The new component, manufactured by Witham and his coworkers at TNW Firearms, converts the weapon from an automatic that fires 800 or 900 rounds per minute, now illegal to own under U.S. law, to a semi-automatic that fires only a single round each time the shooter pulls the trigger. A brochure written partly in German, encourages collectors to buy the gun so they can “own a piece of German history.”

The MG34 is one of nine or 10 vintage machineguns that TNW Firearms has converted in this manner for sale to collectors all over the world. Around noon, a United Parcel Service truck pulls into the driveway.. It offloads a package of high-end carbide end mills used in TNW’s milling machines. The machines take engineering designs from a computer and makes hundreds or even thousands of precise cuts in blocks of steel to create intricate parts that mesh perfectly with old machineguns stockpiled in military bases in Albania, Macedonia, Germany, Israel, Southeast Asia and anyplace else around the globe that TNW owner Tim Bero can find them.

When the UPS truck leaves it may have a $10,000 gun headed to a millionaire in Las Vegas who collects antique aircraft or tanks, a CEO in Miami who collects World War II memorabilia or a filmmaker in Hollywood who is looking for authentic World War II props. Or it may be destined for a U.S. military training facility in North Carolina or Iraq because in addition to refurbishing historic machine guns for well-heeled collectors, TNW occasionally manufactures non-lethal training replicas of modern automatic weapons and, lately, bulletproof panels procured by the Pentagon.

Bero, an aeronautical engineer who started TNW Firearms 15 years ago after making robots that made computer floppy disks, said the beauty of his company’s business model is it has affluent customers all over the world.

“We’re not going to worry about selling stuff here in Oregon,” said Bero, who has never felt the affects of an economic downturn. “Our customers are generally pretty well off. People who can spend $4,000 for a gun usually aren’t hurting.”

The technical expertise involved in remanufacturing guns, coupled with the licenses and security clearances required for importing machine guns from foreign governments and exporting semi-automatic conversions to collectors that, by law, cannot be converted to automatic weapons comprise formidable barriers to entry for would-be competitors. TNW has special licenses from the U.S. departments of State and Customs to bring containers of guns in to a secure location in Washington state. Before the company can convert and sell a new old gun to the public it has to send a prototype to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which inspects the weapon to make sure it cannot be turned into a machine gun. ATF then issues a letter certifying that the gun can lawfully be sold in the United States. TNW sends copies of the certification letters to people who purchase the guns.

It is not unusual for TNW to spend $250,000 or more locating, purchasing and reverse engineering the firing mechanism in an old gun so that it looks authentic to discriminating buyers, yet meets the 1986 federal prohibition on fully automatic weapons. Given these costs, Bero has fairly narrow criteria for selecting guns that will get the undivided attention of his 12-person crew working in Vernonia and other sites.

“Is it the first of a type? Is this gun historically significant? Is this something you’d see in (the movies) ‘Saving Private Ryan’ or ‘Band of Brothers?’ That’s the kind of things we’re looking for,” said Bero, who usually buys large lots of firearms directly from military bases overseas.

Most of the weapons that TNW sells are “90 percent original,” meaning that only the firing mechanism or “receiver” is new. The trick — a major engineering feat, really — is remanufacturing a receiver that cannot be converted to fully automatic, looks authentic down to the manufacture’s original stamps, and works flawlessly.

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