Posted on 10/09/2001 6:37:48 AM PDT by dhuffman@awod.com
--> Bin Laden rifles bought in U.S.?
Gun control group cites security issue
Eunice Moscoso - Cox Washington Bureau
Tuesday, October 9, 2001
Washington --- Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, in the late 1980s, bought at least 25 military-style rifles capable of shooting down helicopters and destroying other targets from long distances, according to a report by a gun control advocacy group.
The U.S.-manufactured weapons, Barrett .50-caliber rifles, were shipped to Afghanistan and probably used against Soviet troops, according to the Violence Policy Center report.
Thousands of these and similar firearms also have been sold in the United States and could be used by terrorists here, the report says.
"This is not a gun control issue. This is a national security issue," said Tom Diaz, a senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center. "It's the equivalent of a rocket or a mortar. It's a weapon of war."
But the maker of the guns, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, based in Murfreesboro, Tenn., says the report is full of errors.
"We only ship rifles to countries that the U.S. State Department allows us to ship to," said Mary Scott Smith, vice president of the company. "There are a lot of documents that must be obtained from the customer, which is always either military or law enforcement."
In addition, she said the company's research shows no incidence of a crime or conviction of a crime with a Barrett .50-caliber rifle.
"The weapons weigh about 30 pounds each. They're about 5 feet long. They are definitely not concealable. They cost upwards to $8,000. It's not the type of rifle that could be used in a crime," she said.
According to the report, the .50-caliber rifles have been purchased legally in the United States by groups including al-Qaida and the Irish Republican Army, then shipped to other countries. The IRA used two of the rifles to assassinate British troops and Irish constables in Northern Ireland, the report says.
The guns, produced by up to 15 companies, also pose a threat domestically because they are powerful, easy to buy, and can reach targets more than 1,000 yards away, Diaz said.
The rifles can blast through lightly armored vehicles and ignite fuel trucks and other chemical storage tanks, he said. They have been confiscated from drug dealers, bank robbers and U.S. extremist groups, including the Branch Davidians, the report said.
But Smith said that Diaz and the Violence Policy Center are engaging in "scare tactics" and that the weapons are mostly purchased by "professional people like doctors and lawyers" who belong to target shooting clubs.
The report's information on al-Qaida was based in part on testimony from the trial earlier this year of four men who were found guilty of conspiring with bin Laden to bomb the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Essam al-Ridi, an Egyptian-born flight instructor who worked as bin Laden's pilot, testified that he acquired the rifles because they were powerful, relatively light and capable of firing Russian ammunition.
Diaz said those guns could still be in Afghanistan.
"For all we know, if any American forces go in there, they could end up being used against our own troops," he said.
Smith pointed out that many weapons in Afghanistan were supplied by the U.S. government to help in the war against the Russians.
"We have no idea what types of rifles, missiles, airplanes, tanks, guns that might have been," she said.
The Violence Policy Center will share the report with members of Congress this week in hopes of pushing legislation to regulate the rifles in the same way machine guns are.
"If a civilian owns a machine gun, the owner has to be licensed under the National Firearms Act," Diaz said. But the .50-caliber rifles are treated by the law as "ordinary, garden-variety rifles."
"An 18-year-old can buy one of these things," he said. "We regulate them less than we do handguns."
Total number of guns employed to destroy the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and kill 6000 Americans = ZERO.
Go F___ Yourselves, Fascist C___suckers!
Nevermind...
Hmmm? 'Incensed Pagan'? Edvins A?
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