Board takes up ban on gun sales (.50 Caliber)

oaklandtribune.com ^ | March 22, 2004 | Tamara Grippi

[B4Ranch]

Board takes up ban on gun sales Law would prohibit selling high-powered rifles in unincorporated areas

By Tamara Grippi, STAFF WRITER

MARTINEZ -- High-powered rifles are the target of a new ordinance that will be introduced by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors at their meeting Tuesday.

The proposed law would prohibit the sale of .50-caliber rifles in unincorporated areas of the county.

Supervisors John Gioia of Richmond and Gayle Uilkema of Lafayette, who are recommend-ing the ordinance, say the ban is intended as a public safety measure.

Telecommunications towers, industrial plants such as oil refineries and railroad cars could all be vulnerable to serious damage from the high-powered rifles, said Uilkema.

"Guns of that magnitude of .50-caliber have the capability of potentially harming or destroy-ing any of those facilities," Uilkema said.

Unincorporated Contra Costa has only two gun dealerships and neither one sells .50-caliber rifles.

The supervisors said they hope the ban on .50-caliber rifle sales could be used as a "model ordinance" and adopted by various Contra Costa cities.

Gioia said nothing is stopping customers from asking gun dealers to order .50-caliber rifles.

"Theoretically, yes," said Chuck Michel of the California Rifle and Pistol Association. "But they haven't."

Michel didn't buy the supervisors' argument that the ban would further homeland security. "A .50-caliber rifle is a pea shooter for a terrorist. The real problem is not the gun, it's the ammunition. If you use explosive ammunition, it doesn't matter what the caliber is."

Such explosive, armor-piercing ammunition is already illegal.

Several gun control organizations, including the San Francisco-based Legal Community Against Violence, are backing the ordinance.

"This is a class of dangerous and deadly weapons specifically designed for military use and urban combat," said Sam Hoover, staff attorney for the Legal Community Against Violence.

Michel disagrees. "The message that legitimate hunters and target shooters get from this is that 'you don't count' and that 'we don't care about your sport,'" he said.

The California Rifle and Pistol Association plans to sue the county if it approves the ban on the basis that it contradicts state law, which has drawn the line at .60-caliber rifles, Michel said.

The California Penal Code prohibits the possession of "destructive devices," which include weapons capable of firing ammunition .60-caliber or larger.

The county supervisors, however, hope Contra Costa will be one of the forces to persuade the state to adopt tougher legislation.

Similar proposals are already in the pipeline.

Legislation proposed by Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, would make it unlawful to manufacture, sell or possess a .50-caliber rifle within California without a permit.

That bill was approved by the state Assembly last year but failed to make it past the state Senate's Public Safety Committee. The legislation has been placed before that committee for reconsideration but no hearing has been scheduled.

[B4Ranch]

Oh that deadly .50 caliber is up for a stomping match again. Where? California, of course.

Does anbody know the new Governors stand on these nasty killing machines?

[Restorer]

Ban the sale of guns nobody is selling.

That'll bring crime to an end!

[B4Ranch]

ping

[B Knotts]

I remember there was an article some time back which compared and contrasted Gray-out Davis and Ahnold. Ahnold favored the .50 cal ban, IIRC.

[tbeatty]

Has any civilian ever been killed by a .50 cal rifle? I know lots of terrorists have been killed by them so I understand why California wants to ban them.

I guess they haven't heard of the .50 caliber handgun yet either.

[Travis McGee]

More form over substance silliness.

[.38sw]

Isn't this special. I live in CoCo County. Guess I need to fire up the Fax and send off some more letters. I get really tired of this. I don't own a .50, nor do I ever expect to, but this attacks need to be stopped.

Dear County Stupervisor:

So, you are proposing a ban on .50 caliber rifles in response to the huge crime using these rifles as weapons? I feel so much safer!

[B4Ranch]

Joe Brower would you ping your list for me?

[Condor51]

If I could afford a Barret I'd get one. But $5,100 is a tad steep for me.

[mvpel]

The Golden State Second Amendment Council, formerly the Silicon Valley NRA Members' Council, wrestled something like this to the ground a while back, I don't doubt they'll be able to do it again.

Besides, there's an interstate commerce issue at work here, plus the California Supreme Court has ruled that licensing and registration of firearms is preempted by state law.

[Fiddlstix]

Bump

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[drypowder]

Michel didn't buy the supervisors' argument that the ban would further homeland security.

They sure think we're dumb. If home land security is the real concern behind their move to ban the .50 caliber, one would think these same liberal Democrat politicians would be demanding that our president close the southern and northern borders and execute and enforce the immigration laws. More than likely, the real reason the Democrats are pushing a ban on .50 calibers (D. Feinstein on a federal level) is their concern that they will become a target for being elitist control freaks (tyrants) and way too anti-American.

[glock rocks]

Such explosive, armor-piercing ammunition is already illegal.

just what smelly pit do these "journalists" inhabit? Amazing what grows where sunlight has never reached.

and OMG, the .45 is only .05 smaller!

[Atlas Sneezed]

I suggest buying a 50 BMG upper for your AR-15. No paperwork, no federal records. Under $2000. Several companies have these.

[JudgemAll]

Public safety? More like public herding to the slaughterhouse. No! Man, LE and gov have no questions to answer in any of these cases... they are confining and harassing us once more. Seems to me we need a restraining order against an armed to the teeth gov. who does not want us to enjoy our personal effects.

[MD_Willington_1976]

How about the .50 Beowulf upper...Been reading up on it...looks like fun.

[JudgemAll]

.45... that's right, get the BMG load necked down to a .45 might prove to be a deadlier and faster round.

[JudgemAll]

Better a Windrunner than a Barret semiauto at that price.

The best buy is Serbu's BFG. It has best bang for buck.. very accurate for a low price. More so than the semi auto BArret.

[umgud]

Go to gunblast.com. Jeff Quinn has roadtested the 50 Beowulf AR version and a BFR custom revolver version.

[pop-aye]

Let me see if I get this straight...

We are talking about a calibur of weapon that not only isn't currently being sold and isn't being requested.

The anti's are making a stretch that Ackhmed is going to walk into Joes Guns to buy a 50 cal and that it wouldn't raise some eyebrows? Lets see, you still have to be a citizen to leagally buy any gun, right? Last time I checked, the terrorists were mostly foreign? And to think that a terrorist, or any criminal is going to walk into a legal gun store and buy a gun is crazier than a mayor who thinks he can offer gay marriage in a state that has by referrendum stated that marriage is between a man and a woman. Oh.. we are talking about that state.

The question isn't weather "anyone" has a use for a 50 cal. Hell, I would buy one just to make bigger holes in the targets I shoot...

This isn't about any particular type of gun. This is about making the sheeple used to the government taking their arms.

'First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me.' Martin Niemöller’s.

It makes me wonder, at what point do the MAJORITY of people, those who believe in marriage between a man and a woman, those who beleive in the second amendment, those who believe that this is "One Nation, Under God," going to stand up and tell the overly vocal and illegally acting minority, ENOUGH!?