To some gun owners, AK-47 gets a bad rap

Michael Hill likes to target shoot.

On Tuesday, the Seffner man was planning to head to a shooting range on U.S. 301 for some practice with his AK-47.

He said he owns two of the assault rifles and uses them only for target practice.

"Compared to a .22 (caliber), I would say it's about maybe twice the kick, maybe three times," said Hill, 46, who works in a machine shop. "My girlfriend fires it, and she has no problems with it and she's a lot lighter than I am."

In popular culture, the AK-47 often is portrayed as a weapon of choice for gangsters and guerrillas - a large, potent firearm that's frequently at the bull's-eye of the fight over the nation's gun laws.

So the news that one of the Tampa Bay area's most popular athletes owns an AK-47 has raised some eyebrows.

On Saturday, someone broke into a Port Charlotte house rented by Tampa Bay Rays players Evan Longoria, David Price and Reid Brignac.

Longoria's AK-47 was among the $56,000 worth of items swiped.

The All-Star third baseman declined to discuss the rifle other than to call it a "personal item."

"A lot of people own them," said Hillsborough County sheriff's Col. Greg Brown. "There are literally thousands of them in the United States."

Brown said there's no more reason to worry about AK-47s than any other guns.

"If you're looking down the barrel of any gun, it's dangerous," he said. "The gun isn't what's dangerous - it's the person that's holding it."

It's not clear how many people own AK-47s statewide - Florida law generally prohibits government agencies or private entities from keeping a registry of privately owned firearms or their owners.

Mark Serbu, president of Serbu Firearms in Tampa, said the AK-47 "has gotten a bad name because you see it on TV."

But for some, he said, the weapon is "kind of a collectible. They're clever; they're neat; they're nice machines."

Former Tampa police Officer Kevin Howell said the AK-47 is "designed for warfare - not to be out and shooting squirrels."

In March 1995, Howell and then-Officer Mike Vigil were shot with an AK-47 while chasing robbery suspects. They survived but needed a total of more than 600 pints of blood.

"It's the most intense pain - like fire," said Howell, who was hit four times. "You don't feel the shot hitting you. You feel the pain that it inflicts."

Still, Howell doesn't have a problem with the weapon, as long as it's in the right hands and secured.

Just months after being shot, Howell himself bought an AK-47 and used it for target practice.

"I'm OK with it," said Howell, who now oversees campus safety at the University of Tampa. "It's about the storage, it's about the safety, it's about how they use it."

Rays manager Joe Maddon declined to say whether he approved or disapproved of Longoria owning an AK-47.

"I didn't get upset when he bought a '69 Camaro," Maddon said. "It's a personal choice situation. I never would attempt to influence somebody's personal choices."

Is he concerned there was an assault rifle in a house shared by three of his players?

"I am certain that if you really polled all throughout Major League Baseball, NBA basketball, NFL football you might get three guys living in a house at one time with some kind of a weapon there," Maddon said. "I don't think it's necessarily that unusual."

jpoltilove@tampatrib.com

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