Q&A: Richard and Renee Wyatt of 'American Guns'

The Wyatts are your typical suburban family... who just happen to own Gunsmoke, one of the premiere firearms facilities in the world. Located outside Denver, Colorado, Gunsmoke is where they buy, sell and trade guns - from hand canons to hunting rifles. And if you don't see what you want, they'll build one for you from nothing more than a block of metal.

Get ready for some explosive, pump-loading action with the Wyatts in Discovery Channel’s all-new series 'American Guns'. Premieres on Discovery Channel (Astro channel 551) every Thursday at 11:00 p.m. starting July 5.

We caught up with Richard, one of the 20th century's foremost experts on the use and history of small arms, and his wife Renee, a tough chick who doesn’t go anywhere without her pistol in her boot.

Y!: Can you tell us a little bit more about yourself, and what this show is about?

Renee: 'American Guns' is basically a show about our business, which is called Gunsmoke.  It’s a retail gun shop and a repair facility.  We also do a large amount of gun, firearms, shooting training, and we do that with regular, everyday people – women, young people, old people, men.  It does not matter what age category or what background you have. We also now do the show as well.

Our family is involved with the business. We have four children.  Two of them are very young, so they’re not involved in the show, but Paige will be turning 18 in October – you’ll see her on the show – and our son Kurt is 22 years old and he works at Gunsmoke full time.

Richard: Sure.  I decided that I was interested in guns very young in my life, in eighth grade.  I wrote a report in my English class about having this gun shop, Gunsmoke, that my family and I run now.  I went to school to become a gunsmith to learn how to fix and repair and build guns.  Then I branched off and went to work for the police department.  I worked as a policeman for many years and as the armorer, which is the person at the police department that fixes the guns and teaches people how to shoot guns. 

Then we got this business going.  So now, just as Renee had said, we sell guns, we buy guns, we build guns.  The thing that we probably like the best is teaching people how to shoot guns.  So in my career we spent a lot of time with that with a lot of people.  We’ve had people come from all over the world to take training with us, even people that have come from areas of Asia where they’re not allowed to necessarily have a gun there but they thought that it was fun to come here and try one out.

Y!: How is 'American Guns' different from other gun shows out there?

Renee: There’s a great show on Discovery called 'Sons of Guns' and it’s been playing for maybe almost a year longer than us.  It’s similar in many, many ways, but they are not a gun shop with actual customers that come in and out; they do more gun modifications on a private basis.  They are in the southern part of the United States in a place called Louisiana.  It’s a much different atmosphere.  They have accents and they’re from a different area. 

So we’re from the west in Colorado.  We have a lot of western influences, kind of like John Wayne type of things.  They’re more on the bayou, like Creole type stuff.  Even though we’re similar in what we do in many respects, it’s very, very different.  It’s like two cooking shows.  One show might be Italian cooking and one show might be Asian cooking.

Y!: What’s the rarest gun that you’ve purchased?

Richard: We’ve purchased some very rare guns before.  We have some guns that are one of a kind.  We have a Colt Single Action Army, which is a cowboy gun that you would see from the 1800s.  This gun was used by a marshal in Alamosa, Colorado.  He was arresting – his name was Emerson, Marshal Emerson, and he was arresting a guy by the name of Abe Taylor.  Abe went and got a gun from a friend of his and got in a fight with Marshal Emerson so he would not go to jail.  He ended up killing Marshal Emerson in that gun fight in 1895.  We have that gun that was Marshal Emerson’s and the holster.  He’s in our fallen police officers memorial in Washington, D.C. 

Y!: Do you guys have any challenges in filming the show or any setbacks at all?

Richard: Are you kidding?  Filming a show is a lot more work than people realize.  There’s so much more that goes into it, but right now we are having a great time filming the show.  We have a wonderful crew of people who are helping us and building a great show.  It’s making for fantastic TV.  Don’t kid yourself, it’s difficult.  Just getting here today in time to do this caused us to have to really rush, but we got everything done and we made it here, so we’re happy.

Renee: Also, may I interject just for a quick moment?  Much of the show that you’re going to see is one problem after another because we’re building things from scratch and we’re designing things.  We don’t know whether they work or don’t work at this point, so you’re going to see trial and error and you’re going to see things that the gunsmith thought would absolutely work that didn’t work at all.  Then they’re going to show some things that they weren’t quite sure about but they worked beautifully.  That’s kind of a lot of what this show is about right at its very basis level.

Y!: Speaking, actually, of building things from scratch, we saw that you guys build guns out of blocks of steel, is that correct?

Richard: Yes, that’s right.

Y!:  Are these only handguns or do you make much bigger weapons as well?

Richard: No, we make anything.  We’ve made cannons and handguns, very little handguns, rifles, and we can make almost anything.

Y!: Personalization is a big part of Gunsmoke.  Is that right?  Is it an important factor for a customer to purchase?

Richard: Yes, I believe it is.  We build firearms that not only are functional but they’re also a piece of art and something that’s a family heirloom that can be passed down from generation to generation.  It’ll continue to work.  A firearm is a very rare tool.  It’s one of the few tools we have in this country that lasts.  I mean, a car wears out, a saw wears out, but a firearm, they’ve lasted as long as our country has.

Renee: Not only that, a firearm, especially here in America, is a very wise investment.  They are increasing in value at a very great rate, so people who purchase valuable guns often purchase a large number of them because it’s a really terrific investment. 

Richard: For example, in 1985, if you would have purchased a Thompson sub-machine gun, which is the gun that everybody’s familiar with the gangsters of Chicago Al Capone using, the mobsters, that gun would have cost you, in 1985, about $1,500.  Today it’s worth $40,000.

'American Guns' premieres on Discovery Channel (Astro channel 551) every Thursday at 11:00 p.m. starting July 5.