Find The Boots

This may take the cake as the most stupid anti-gun website I've ever seen. Let's work through a few of the "facts" that they've published:

.50 Caliber Sniper Rifles were designed to attack parked or landing aircraft, armored personnel carriers, rail tank cars, bulk fuel storage, and concrete bunkers.

Actually, they were designed as anti-personnel weapons and have both police and military applications. Their effectiveness against soft targets such as aircraft, tank cars, and bulk fuel storage is not much greater than the effectiveness of traditional dangerous game hunting rounds. To be effective against hard targets you'd have to use AP rounds, which are illegal for civilian use. And I wonder where they got the idea that even a .50 AP round could penetrate a concrete bunker? Maybe one made from cinder blocks....

* .50 Caliber sniper rifles are powerful enough to puncture armored limousines and can be used as tools for assassination.

Again, AP rounds are illegal. If the bad guys can get those, then getting the rifle isn't any harder. And yet, there hasn't been a single instance ever of a crime committed with a .50 cal, much less an assassination.

* .50 Caliber Sniper Rifles have effective ranges up to 2,000 yards, or in other words, 20 football fields laid end to end. Deer hunters generally shoot at ranges of 150 to 200 yards.

The effective range of almost any rifle in the hands of the average deer hunter is about 200 yards, because there are only a handful of people in the world that can hit targets at longer ranges. Even with a .50 cal in their hands, few people can engage targets at 2000 yards. BTW, the lethal range of a .30-06 is about 3,500 yards -- the distance at which the bullet looses its lethal effectiveness.

* Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network bought 25 Barrett .50 Caliber sniper rifles in the late 1980s.

They make it sound like OBL just walked into a Walmart and picked up 25 Barretts. In reality, those rifles were sold to the US government, who was supporting OBL at the time as he fought the Soviets. That transaction would be illegal today, because, err, he's a felon. The "In the News" section describes a news article about Iraqi terrorists getting .50 cal weapons that were sold to Iran. So how about they start asking Iran to stop supplying terrorists and leave law abiding American citizens alone? Another news story was about a man of "middle eastern descent" who tried to get into the Barrett plant. Guess what? He didn't get in. Probably couldn't get one legally so he was trying to steal one.

* .50 Caliber ammunition is the largest round available on the civilian market and highly destructive armor-piercing, incendiary, and explosive rounds are easily available.

Easily available? They're illegal. Ban the .50 cal and guess what, it will still be available.

Your safety is at stake because these weapons are so readily available.

Have they priced a Barrett recently? Well out of the range of the average citizen. I'm quite the gun nut and I've only seen a few of these things.

.50 Caliber sniper rifles are a terrorist’s dream considering the death and destruction they could inflict.

It takes years to acquire the skill to engage targets at 2,000 yards, if you've got the basic talent to start. Frankly, a 12-gauge police shotgun is more of a terrorists dream. Just walk into a shopping mall and start shooting. Of course, purchasing any gun would be illegal for most terrorists since they tend to be felons.

Every single statement they make about the .50 cal can also be made of other high caliber rifles. After they ban the .50 cal, they'll be coming for the .375 mag, .405 Winchester, .450 Marlin, and .45-70 Government. They'll eventually work their way down to the .30-06, .308, and .30-30 -- all had military uses and are lethal against soft targets at long ranges.

The next time you hear someone say that "sniper rifles aren't for hunting game, they're for killing people", remind them that before the Barrett .50 cal, the most widely used sniper rifle in the US Military arsenal was the Remington model 700. I'll bet you've got one in your gun case -- I do, it's a great deer rifle.

Labels: 2nd amendment