Supica stars at VGCA's meeting

Jim Supica of the National Firearms Museum was the star of the show at the Virginia Gun Collectors Association's monthly meeting last night.

Senior Curator Phil Schreier introduced Supica and pointed out that Supica was addressing the group for a second time. The first time was almost a decade ago, when Supica was invited as the co-author of the newly published Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson, now on its third edition.

Now the director of the Museum, Supica started out with a prepared presentation and transitioned smoothly into an open feedback session with the 50 or so attendees.

"My name's Jim, and I'm a gun collector," Supica started out. "I started in the soft stuff, just a pistol for personal protection …"

Supica continued the humorous analogy of gun collecting as an addiction and said the audience should procure a 12-step recovery plan. "Look at the similarities," Supica said. "I went through denial, rationalization, and then I started dealing to support my habit!"

Supica spoke of his career and described gun collecting as the best job on earth — second only to his new position as director of the Museum. A self-described "recovering lawyer," he decided in 1991 to "see if I could make a living out of my hobby." Supica passed around examples of his company's magazines and talked about how they changed over the years.

He says what draws him to firearms collecting is history, variety, and technological revolution.

The museum's mission is preservation and conservation, Supica said, but it can expand into education and communication. He asked the VGCA members what feedback they had for him and said that while he knows it takes time to create change, he will slowly bring new events and ideas to the Museum. "But my number one job," he reiterated, pointing to the visual on his flip chart, above, "is to not screw up the wonderful job that's been done so far."

Check back to NRAblog.com tomorrow for a preview of what's sure to be the first of an annual tradition at the Museum.