Elvis, Firearm & Weapon Collector by Paul F. Belard Book

Elvis always loved firearms, a fascination most children had when playing cops and robbers or cowboy and indian. It started early in his life. He was in ROTC, ‘The Reserve Officer Training Corps’ program in high school. In 1956 he was given a .410 gauge Winchester shotgun for skeet shooting by a friend in Biloxi. While in the Army, he earned his marksmanship badge for a .45 caliber pistol and M1 rifle, and he also earned his marksmanship badge for an M2 carbine. On top of that, he comes from the South, where guns are an integral part of the culture.

In the earlier years at Graceland, Elvis was known to keep a Colt .45 automatic for his own protection. Here he has also got himself a training area for his shooting. It became a normal habit for Elvis to carry around a gun for the rest of his life, and made those who were with him all the time to do the same. In 1964 Elvis gets his official permit as a ‘Shelby County Deputy Sheriff’ legally allowed to carry weapons. In the late 60s, he was often armed even on stage.

His interest in weapons became an obsession in the early 70s. During this time, he began to buy more weapons, sometimes quite a few at the same time. He kept some and gave some to his friends and strangers. This kind of mania may come from the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. The Manson murders that happened not far from his home in Los Angeles in 1969, and the death threats he received in Las Vegas in 1970. That last part really hit him. Joe Carr from FECC’s fan page noted: “It’s no coincidence that he stopped riding horses around this time on the Graceland lawn and never again did he walk through the audience in Vegas, while his obsession with firearms grew even bigger. Nor did he meet fans at the gate of his homes as he did in the late 1960s.”

Many people, both wealthy and poor, had gun collections, especially people who had been in the military. So it is by no means strange that they had this kind of use of pistols. Elvis was rich enough to satisfy every desire he had. He also felt he needed protection.

This book contains only a fraction of the approx. 300 firearms and general weapons he collected or he bought as gifts. Some of them have been sold at auctions since his death.