PORTLAND – Gun control activists Monday questioned the prudence of the planned Hiram Maxim Machine Gun Shoot and Expo, saying it sends the wrong message to children.

The southern Maine chapter of the Million Mom March stopped short of urging that the weekend festival of firepower at the town gravel pit in Dover-Foxcroft be canceled.

But the group’s president, Cathie Whittenburg of Portland, suggested that organizers should bar children under age 18 from attending.

The event, now in its sixth year, enables machine gun owners to get together and fire their weapons. It has been billed as the largest machine gun shoot on the East Coast.

The show is sponsored by the Hiram Maxim Historical Society, named for the Maine native from Sangerville who invented the machine gun in 1883.

The Million Mom March expressed concern that promoters of the event were billing it as a “weekend of fast action and fun” where one can “witness a spectacular display of machine gun firepower with tracer and pyrotechnics sure to please all.”

Noting that the event is open to all ages with discounts for children, the group said the opportunity to shoot or watch such firepower desensitizes young people to the grave damage such weapons can cause.

“We are concerned that this sends a message to our children that these guns are playthings rather than serious weapons of destruction,” the group said.

Barry Sturk of Waterville, president of the Hiram Maxim Historical Society and chief organizer of the shoot, said gun control advocates had it all wrong.

Sturk said the event provides an opportunity for parents to educate youngsters about the weapons and to emphasize safety issues.

“We let them know that this is something that is not a toy,” he said.

Strict rules provide that shooters under 18 must be under immediate adult supervision, Sturk noted. “It’s kind of ironic that [the Million Mom March] would want to dictate to parents what they should do with their children,” he said.

Whittenburg said her group had not expressed its concerns previously because it only became aware of the event after reading a newspaper story about last year’s shoot.

She said she did not attempt to contact organizers to suggest that children be barred. “I doubt we would have much common ground,” she said.

The Million Mom March has endorsed trigger locks to protect children and a national system that would register handguns and license their owners.

Dover-Foxcroft Police Chief Dennis Dyer said area motels have been booked solid for months in advance of the machine gun shoot, which attracts thousands of visitors.

“Most townspeople look forward to it,” the chief said, although he acknowledged, “It is loud.”

The only safety problem took place the first year when a shooter may have fired too high and struck a house, Dyer said. Since then, officials changed the firing lines and there have been no other incidents, he said.

Dyer praised the way the event’s sponsors have organized the shoot.

“They run a very clean, safe operation. If they didn’t, we wouldn’t let them have it here.”