Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Board takes up ban on gun sales (.50 Caliber)
oaklandtribune.com ^ | March 22, 2004 | Tamara Grippi

Posted on 03/22/2004 3:13:55 PM PST by 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.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 50caliber; bang; banglist; barrett; boys; guncontrol; lahti; m40a1; ontos; serbu
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-83 next last
To: archy
Mother of G*d!!! That is one hell of a weapon!
61 posted on 03/22/2004 6:16:17 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (Proud member of P.O.O.P., People Offended by Offended People.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: B4Ranch
the rcbs tools work just fine :o)
62 posted on 03/22/2004 6:20:07 PM PST by ezo4
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: Iron-sight Sniper
"This is a class of dangerous and deadly weapons specifically designed for military use and urban combat,"

urban combat?!?!

.50 is WWWWAAAAYYYY!!!! to big to use in urban combat, unless you want to blow the target into 1,000,000 pieces

The M40A1 106mm recoilless rifle is a dandy tool for urban combat, just the ticket for countersniper use, since it includes a .50 caliber semiauto spotting rifle [.50x77 *short .50*] mounted above the 106mm barrel, with a ballistic profile that matches that of the 106mm High Explosive Antitank round. Just fire the .50 and adjust the fire until its spotter-tracers are impacting on the target, then let fly with the big feller. They are indeed big, heavy and cumbersome; but can be light vehicle mounted, and have proved their worth in conflicts from Cuba in 1958 to the Panama invasion in 1989, and probably since.

And blowing the target into 1,000,000 pieces is exactly the idea....


63 posted on 03/22/2004 6:21:03 PM PST by archy (Concrete shoes, cyanide, TNT! Done dirt cheap! Neckties, contracts, high voltage...Done dirt cheap!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: B4Ranch
The Alaska Pipeline was punctured by a .338 Winchester Magnum, I suppose they are next on the list.
64 posted on 03/22/2004 6:21:06 PM PST by Nakota
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Inyo-Mono
Mother of G*d!!! That is one hell of a weapon!

That's the 20mm L/39. The 30mm version is bigger.

Kinda dwarfs a Russian PK medium machinegun, don't it?


65 posted on 03/22/2004 6:24:05 PM PST by archy (Concrete shoes, cyanide, TNT! Done dirt cheap! Neckties, contracts, high voltage...Done dirt cheap!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: MD_Willington_1976
First they came for the 50 cal, and I didn't....
66 posted on 03/22/2004 6:26:33 PM PST by StriperSniper (Manuel Miranda - Whistleblower)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Nakota
The Alaska Pipeline was punctured by a .338 Winchester Magnum, I suppose they are next on the list.

The railcar in Wyoming carrying a Peacekeeper missile that was chewed up by 10 rounds of 7.62x39mm, wrecking the missile's guidance system and causing the entire unit to be scrapped at a cost of millions of dollars was likely done for with an SKS... about a year before the Oklahoma City federal courthouse bombing. The SKS is on the list too.

67 posted on 03/22/2004 6:27:43 PM PST by archy (Concrete shoes, cyanide, TNT! Done dirt cheap! Neckties, contracts, high voltage...Done dirt cheap!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: Nakota
Probably by some guy out for his first caribou hunt. I wonder if he got it on his third shot?

Oh I forgot caribou and the Alaskan pipeline weren't supposed to be compatible. LOL
68 posted on 03/22/2004 6:32:00 PM PST by B4Ranch (Most men and nations die, lying down.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: archy
And to think there was a time when you could buy
a Lahti here in the US for under $100,
I've seen the ads. Of course that was
when we were free.

Only Hollywood has ever used them in a crime.
69 posted on 03/22/2004 6:36:46 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: archy
Re: #57/#58. Your Barrett letter "find" is priceless. He inspires me to spend the extra bucks on one of his products vs less expensive .50s. By the way, Mr. Dillon, of Dillon Precision also has an outstanding attitude. Besides their "commoners" loading equipment, his other company, Dillon Aero manufactures critical assemblies for the GAU-2 7.62 mini-gatling-gun and other military weapons. Their engineering skill with the GAU-2 feeder-delinker assembly has turned a good weapon into an exceptionally reliable system.
70 posted on 03/22/2004 6:38:57 PM PST by XHogPilot (Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

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

There are a few 50/338 wildcatters out there. Impressive from what I've heard, pushing the upper limit of (smokless powder propellant) velocity potential.

71 posted on 03/22/2004 6:42:51 PM PST by templar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: templar
I would think a 50/338 would be almost destructive on a barrel.
72 posted on 03/22/2004 7:16:35 PM PST by B4Ranch (Most men and nations die, lying down.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: Beelzebubba
Indeed, but although they share a projectile diameter, the 50 Beowolf is a straight-walled cartridge with a blunt projectile, which lods through an AR-15 lower (OAL = .223, single stack to fit), while the 50 BMG is a high-velocity bottle-necked rifle cartridge that shoots a mile

Would it be practical to design a bolt-action .50BMG upper for some reasonably-common firearm if the ammunition did not have to feed through the existing lower? I think under current rules an upper which requires a lower to fire is not a "firearm".

I know the Thompson Contenter exists, but I don't know if its stock would really be suitable for use with a .50BMG round. Since rifles like the AR-15 make the stock integral with the upper, it would seem like that might be a better way to go.

73 posted on 03/22/2004 8:23:23 PM PST by supercat (Why is it that the more "gun safety" laws are passed, the less safe my guns seem?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: archy
Ontos Archy, Ontos.

Semper Fi

74 posted on 03/22/2004 9:00:53 PM PST by An Old Man (USMC 1956 1960)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: XHogPilot
Your Barrett letter "find" is priceless. He inspires me to spend the extra bucks on one of his products vs less expensive .50s. By the way, Mr. Dillon, of Dillon Precision also has an outstanding attitude.

Mike Dillon has been noted as having a policy for not selling the M134 minigun upgrade components he manufactures to other civilian minigun owners, so I don't quite hold him in as high an esteem as you appear to, though I'm not a minigun owner [Hey, wouldn't a half or 5/8th scale A10 with a 7.62 minigun in the snout be a fun little personal aircraft?] myself. Yet. Of course, a quad .50 mount sorting 4- 7,62 miniguns with 3000 rounds each would be kind of spiffy too....

But Barret does indeed make most of its products and upgrade components available to civilian world shooters as well, now also including their 6,8x43mm upper receiver for the M16 family of weapons. And perhaps, too, the Barrett 25mm *Payload rifle* will also be available to Americans guaranteed such ownership by the same constitution that authorizes government to exist, we shall see.

So for now, at least, Ronnie Barrett is a bit higher on my list than Mike Dillon, though the products of both are top-notch.

75 posted on 03/22/2004 9:19:32 PM PST by archy (Concrete shoes, cyanide, TNT! Done dirt cheap! Neckties, contracts, high voltage...Done dirt cheap!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: An Old Man; hookman; spatzie
Ontos Archy, Ontos.

Semper Fi

Yeah, I know. But I figure starting with a Jeep or Land Rover-mounted single gun is the way to begin, with both a live and dummy gun available. Then if an Ontos vehicle does come my way within or near my price range, I'll at least have a pair of the guns to mount on it, so it won't look quite so naked.

I did see a nifty-as-heck setup for folding hydraulic ramps to let a WWII Bren Gun carrier [with 81mm mortar] climb into the back of a M35A2 Deuce-and-a-half. It strikes me that the setup would have been perfect for an Ontos, too.

If I do get one, I'm gonna need a crew. You want to drive or shoot?

Whatsa matter? Ain't you never seen a Texan with his six-guns before?


76 posted on 03/22/2004 9:29:03 PM PST by archy (Concrete shoes, cyanide, TNT! Done dirt cheap! Neckties, contracts, high voltage...Done dirt cheap!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

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

.50 caliber rifles aren't being sold? Somebody tell TexasCowboy. It must mean he "liberated" this somewhere:


77 posted on 03/22/2004 11:10:13 PM PST by El Gato (Federal Judges can twist the Constitution into anything.. Or so they think.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: glock rocks
He he he........was browsing the 10 Mar SGN and read the article by gun geek boy about the 50 whisper........kewl tewl. My version of the urban 50BMG aka the .460 Wby Mag will bother these ban everything bastards eventually also. Sad bunch of losers in power these days.

Stay safe !

78 posted on 03/22/2004 11:23:25 PM PST by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: supercat
Would it be practical to design a bolt-action .50BMG upper for some reasonably-common firearm if the ammunition did not have to feed through the existing lower?


Yes, there are a handful of companies out there right now with $1500-2000 50 BMG uppers for your AR-15 lower. Just gun parts. No paper, no NICS, no confiscation.
79 posted on 03/23/2004 7:57:53 AM PST by Atlas Sneezed (Your Friendly Freeper Patent Attorney)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee; Squantos
The frog twisted and writhed -- momentarily; this increase in temperature was 2-3 degrees more than the normal jolt. "Ah well," he said to himself, settling back in his deep fat frier. "What do these have to do with me?"
80 posted on 03/24/2004 2:26:06 AM PST by risk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-83 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson