Criminal Use of the 50 Caliber Sniper Rifle

Violence Policy Center ^ | 2001

[Hugin]

So they could only come up with two instances of a 50 caliber rifle ever being used in a crime. The rest are people arrested for other charges who simply possessed one.

Here's a novel idea--prosecute those who actually use the guns to commit a crime, and leave the thousands of people who don't alone. But of course it's the same old game, demonize some undefined type of gun, like "assault rifles", "saturday night specials" "50 caliber sniper rifles", etc. Then deliberately write a law that is covers many other types of guns that people never thought would be included.

[Unbeliever]

Sounds like the v.p.c. is doing it's best to train would be terrorists.
Remember the media campaign by h.c.i. to outlaw civilian purchase of teflon coated "cop killer" bullets in 1986? The most important detail is that no police officer was ever killed with one. The result of their constant bleating about how teflon coated bullets will penetrate a bulletproof vest got criminals thinking and caused a huge increase in police deaths due to headshots over the next year or so.

[IronJack]

The hyperbole and hysteria in this piece is almost palpable! So are the thin attempts to legitimize this utter propaganda as scientific study and to demonize an inanimate object. Obviously, subtlety is not their propagandists' strong suit. They must have trained at the Josef Goebbels School of Journalism.

[Dutch Boy]

Has there been a single death of a person on US soil caused by the .50 BMG? Unless I missed it while reading this post I'd say no.

If the government was truely interesting in preventing deaths wouldn't they also attempt outlaw gay sex? The number of self inflicted AIDS deaths alone are staggering. I'd venture to say about 1,000,000 to 1 over .50 cal BMG deaths.

[ArneFufkin]

Can you imagine their pre-shift breifing? "OK ... Alchohol is legal, Tobacco is legal, and, whaddyaknow, so are Firearms. Team, we really serve no useful purpose, but we have a front end loader, no supervision, and we will not be deterred from systematically and aimlessly driving around this location and killing 8 hours of time. Be careful out there."

[RogueIsland]

More Americans will drown in their back yard swimming pools next year than will be killed by a .50 BMG bullet.

More Americans (inside this country, anyway) will be killed by just about anything than will be killed by a .50 BMG. More people will probably be killed by falling pianos.

[ArneFufkin]

They must have trained at the Josef Goebbels School of Journalism.

The only criminal use of the gun ... was having the gun! It's like saying criminal use of fireworks, marijuana or an escort.

I really hate that level of deception, and I despise the people who are willing to engage in it to achieve their agenda. These people are dangerous because they are amoral, and they put their selfish political objectives above the truth, and probably the law. Clintonesque.

[ArneFufkin]

More people will probably be killed by falling pianos.

If cartoons are any gauge, that happens quite regularly.

[Double Tap]

Never mind the facts that it still is 45" long, 30 pounds, and last but not least, it's a single shot that is impossible to reload quickly.

[Redcloak]

That doesn't stop 'em. They'll just wear two under a trenchcoat and have their homies reload. This gun is the criminals' gun of choice!!

-Redcoak, laying it on with a trowel.

[no-s]

I think it's a "Boys" anti-tank rifle.

The boys were flipping through Jane's, they found it and asked if I had one when I was little and could they please get one too.

[Double Tap]

LOL!!!

It would take 4 gangsta's to get off more the 2 rounds. While their reloading, you could walk over and smack them in the head with a hammer.

[MissAmericanPie]

All dressed up and no one to blow up. Maybe they should just stay in front of a mirror admiring their macho swat outfits (pose) (flex), at least the citizens would be safer.

[Thorn11ACR-Jr]

More children have died by drowning in a 5 gallon plastic bucket....than all the people in the United States killed by a 50 cal "Barrett style" combined.

Ban those evil dangerous plastic buckets before all our children are killed....same logic !

[real saxophonist]

Sgt. Timothy Mossbrucker, 36, a father of six from the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, drove into the storeparking lot after witnesses relayed the news of Albert's attack. As he steered his police car toward Petrosky's position at the high point of the lot, Petrosky opened fire on him with the SKS assault weapon, hitting him with a 7.62 mm shot in the jaw. This shot traveled a distance of over 300 feet, and yet Petrosky was still not finished. After spraying the parking lot and nearby store buildings with at least 15 other SKS rounds, he switched to a .50 caliber scope-mounted rifle, attached to a bipod so he could fire it from a prone ground position. Petrosky fired three more .50 rounds at Sgt. Mossbrucker's patrol car as it slowly crashed to a stop. An off-duty IRS agent, Robert O'Callaghan, was heading into the Albertson's store, when he saw Petrosky firing. He drew his own gun and after he exchanged several shots with the suspect, Petrosky quickly gave up and was subdued by a construction worker, who sat on him until more sheriff's deputies could arrive.

source

When this happened, the hysteria was about the SKS, no mention of the .50.

[Thorn11ACR-Jr]

At 60 yards do you know the difference between a 50 cal. hiting a 1/2 steel plate and a little varmint 22-250 hitting the same plate...?

Nothing, the little 22-250 with Winchester Supreme ballistic tips puts a clean 50 cal. size hole right through it.

When the politicans find out that at close range the little 22-250 will also penetrate their limo glass and doors it will also become ripe for confiscation.

The FBI isn't afraid of the 50 cal. its so big that one could hide one...the politicans know that even in their cozy armored limo they can be touched by pissed off peasents.

[copycat]

He was engaged in a gunfight with an ARMED IRS agent who happened to be passing by? The IRS is authorizing their agents to wear weapons?

While working in an IRS building a year ago I saw several cases of Kevlar vests. The revenooers know how popular they are with the people.

[ArneFufkin]

What a rewarding profession.

[_Jim]

The weapons weren't even available to be fired at any mysterious men who may have been hiding in horse trailors.

From:

Files detail evidence of huge cult arsenal

The Dallas Morning News, May 26, 1993
By Lee Hancock

we have the following which contradicts you:

Among approximately 200 separate weapons cataloged during a three-week search of the compound were:

* At least one Barrett 50-caliber sniper rifle. A Dallas-area gun dealer said during the standoff that he had sold one of the weapons to Mr. Koresh, and authorities suspected that he had several of the bipod-mounted weapons in the compound. Authorities also found another Barrett bipod bearing a different weapon serial number. Another court document filed Tuesday indicated that the search produced a second .50-caliber weapon.

[_Jim]

the Davidian .50 calibre rifles were being shown at a gun show, not at the Waco compound, on February 28, 1993.

From:

U.S. not responsible, Davidian jury says

Judge must still rule, but sect's lawyer calls decision final

The Dallas Morning News, July 15, 2000
By Lee Hancock

we have the following which also contradicts your statement:

... lawyers also spent more than a day detailing the 300 weapons amassed by Mr. Koresh.

Jurors saw charred remnants of a .50-caliber sniper rifle ...