Free Republic

Anyone who has ever used a firearm of any kind understands the dangers involved. Unlike most liberals who want to blame guns for all the violence they are used for, most conservatives understand the dangers involved in using guns.  After the recent shooting in Tucson, the media and the left came out attacking guns and right wing rhetoric for what one crazy leftist did. Yes, it was a deranged individual who had gotten himself involved with a movement that is so far left he thought his Democrat Congresswoman, Gabrielle Gifford, was a conservative nut that needed to be eliminated....

Sniper teams remain the most lethal force on the battlefield and have been credited with many successful engagements. As effective as sniper teams are however, their accuracy is fundamentally limited by random variables such as changing winds, muzzle velocity dispersions and round-to-round variations. The DARPA EXtreme ACcuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) program aims to maximize the effectiveness of sniper teams while improving their safety. Through EXACTO, DARPA is developing a guided round capability in a .50 caliber platform. It is currently intended to provide snipers the capability to engage targets moving at much greater speeds, in tougher environmental conditions such as...

The vehicle pulling the trailer started having mechanical trouble and they pulled off onto the exit ramp at McLeod Road. They called for a tow truck and began to transfer the U-haul trailer from the disabled vehicle to the second vehicle. The two women stood near the other vehicle and trailer while the man was down near the bumper trying to wire the trailer lights into his truck. Malone said that’s when a silver colored sedan with three people inside pulled up. An armed man stepped out and pointed the gun at the older woman, as he covered his face...

FORT POLK, La., April 23, 2010 – It was April 2007 and the early-morning sky was clear as Army sniper Sgt. 1st Class Brandon McGuire and his spotter scanned for insurgents near Forward Operating Base Iskandaryia in Iraq. "We were observing a stretch of road that had recently been cleared of IEDs [improvised explosive devices]," said McGuire, now the first sergeant of Alpha Troop, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 509th Infantry Regiment that’s based here. "The area had also seen a lot of mortar activity,” McGuire recalled. “We had several soldiers killed and severely wounded along that stretch of road by IEDs...

HANCOCK COUNTY, MS (WLOX) - Instead of a traditional ribbon cutting, MAC opened its business with a bang as gunshots rang out. MAC Chairman Robert Gagne' said, "That was our ribbon cutting." MAC produces a light weight 50 caliber bullet for machine guns. The ammunition is made of a high tech plastic polymer casing. "In about 1960, our military tried to really focus on reducing the load for our military men and women. After 50 years of development, the soldiers are still carrying too much stuff," said MAC President Nick Maljkovic. "It didn't change a whole lot. In fact,...

July 31, 2007: Two years ago, field testing of the XM-312, the replacement for the eighty year old, .50 caliber (12.7mm) M-2 ("Ma Deuce") machine-gun, began, in the United States and overseas. Then, nothing. That's because the test results were not encouraging, the biggest shortcoming being the low rate of fire (about 260 rounds per minute). This is about half the rate of the M2, and was believed adequate for the 25mm smart shells the XM312 was originally designed for (as the XM307). But for 12.7mm bullets, it didn't impress the troops. There were some reliability problems, which could be...

While the price of this gun is incredibly reasonable, the low quality that one usually expects with a low price is not a fact of life with the BFG-50. How can this be done? Low overhead, and a design that's optimized for manufacturability as well as performance and quality. Plus a labor pool made up mostly of illegal immigrant children toiling in a hellish environment, subsisting on a diet of water, rice and cockroaches. The BFG-50 is a perfect gun for the enthusiast who has always wanted to have a .50 BMG rifle, but doesn't want to spend $3,000+ to...

Can someone comment on this picture of this M2 and it's ammo?

Gale Peckham says he was looking outside his kitchen window when he heard the second ping. "We've been hit," he told his wife. There are two bullet holes in Peckham's shed that he believes came from the firing range behind his house in Kearns. The range's manager said he doesn't know whether the bullets came from the range, but has voluntarily ceased shooting there as the business ponders whether to renovate the range or turn it into retail space. "We've been shooting here for five years with .50-caliber [Browning machine guns] and .30-06s and we don't know of a bullet...

The note below is from one such friend who did West Point, retired after 23 years as an Army infantry officer (06) and then taught math at the Academy for several years. It's a weapons and tactics assessment note from a Marine Gunnie friend of my friend. I found it interesting and useful and trust you will too. - Dan Hello to all my fellow gunners, military buffs, veterans and interested guys. A couple of weekends ago I got to spend time with my son Jordan, who was on his first leave since returning from Iraq. He is well (a...

'Fiddy-Cal' Becomes Weapon of Choice in Iraq BY DAVID WOOD WASHINGTON -- U.S. troops in Iraq are firing .50-caliber machine guns at such a high rate, the Army is scrambling to resupply them with ammunition -- in some cases dusting off crates of World War II machine gun rounds and shipping them off to combat units.In the dangerous and unanticipated conflict that has intensified in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March 2003, the gun that grunts call the "fiddy-cal" or "Ma Deuce," after its official designation, M-2, has become a ubiquitous sight mounted on armored Humvees and other heavy...

The fight to maintain our rights is a never-ending struggle. We were reminded of this recently when we received a postcard from an organization called the Freedom States Alliance. This is an outfit that uses scare tactics about terrorism to push its anti-gun agenda. Pictured on the front of the card was a civilian airliner with an illustration of a rifle scope's crosshairs centered to the nose of the plane and the Web site www.50CaliberTerror.com listed across the top. On the back was a listing of why .50 caliber rifles should be banned. The reasons might seem reasonable, but a...

CCRKBA Says Congress Was Right to Reject Moran Amendment to Ban .50-Caliber Exports Distribution Source : U.S. Newswire Date : Friday - June 17, 2005 To: National Desk BELLEVUE, Wash., June 17 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The U.S. House of Representatives acted properly this week to overwhelmingly reject an amendment to a spending bill that would have banned the export of .50-caliber rifles, said the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA). The amendment, by Rep. James Moran (D-Va.), would have blocked exports of the rifles to "non-governmental entities." The House turned it down 278-149. "This amendment...

H.AMDT.292 (A045) Amends: H.R.2862 Sponsor: Rep Moran, James P. [VA-8] (offered 6/16/2005) AMENDMENT PURPOSE: An amendment to prohibit funds in the Act from being used to pay administrative expenses or compensate an officer or employee of the United States in connection with licensing the export of a nonautomatic or semiautomatic rifle capable of firing a center-fire cartridge in 50 caliber, .50 BMG caliber, any other variant of 50 caliber, or any metric equivalent of such calibers, or any nongovernmental agency. STATUS: 6/16/2005 1:17pm: Amendment (A045) offered by Mr. Moran (VA). (consideration: CR H4592-4593, H4603-4604; text: CR H4592) 6/16/2005 3:17pm: On...

Dear Violence Policy Center Action Network Member: This Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern time, NBC News' Dateline is scheduled to run a story on the threat posed by 50 caliber sniper rifles. The VPC worked closely with Dateline on the piece. Also, yesterday by a vote of 278 to 149 the U.S. House of Representatives defeated Representative Jim Moran's (D-VA) amendment to ban the export of 50 caliber sniper rifles. Thank you to everyone who called their Member of Congress this week in support of the Moran amendment. To see how your Representative voted, click here: http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-house-rollcall-super-rifles,0,3424527.story While disappointed in...

House Rejects Effort on Rifle Restriction By ANDREW TAYLOR June 16, 2005, 4:18 PM EDT WASHINGTON -- The National Rifle Association and its allies in the House beat back an effort Thursday to restrict gun manufacturers' exports of high-powered, .50-caliber rifles that can bring down jet airliners from a mile away. By a 278-149 vote, the House killed an amendment by Rep. James Moran to block .50-caliber exports to civilians. He said the guns are dream weapons for terrorists. "These are unparalleled weapons, and I'm not trying to restrict them in the United States," said Moran, D-Va. "I just don't...

June 14th, 2005 Dear ****** We have important news to share with you to keep 50 caliber sniper rifles out of the hands of terrorists. Congressman James P. Moran (D-VA), author of the 50 Caliber Sniper Rifle Reduction Act, will be offering an amendment this afternoon during House consideration of the Science, State, Justice and Commerce (SSJC) Appropriations bill (HR 2862) that would prohibit the exportation of the 50 Caliber Sniper Rifle. Congressman Moran wrote the following letter to his House colleagues today about this important homeland security public policy measure: "Capable of inflicting a devastatingly accurate impact from well...

A .50-caliber rifle can shoot down an airplane while it's taking off or landing, bust a hole in half-inch steel and set an oil refinery on fire, according to Andy Pelosi, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. And an 18-year-old can buy one in New York state. "There's no place in civilian society for this gun. This gun is a weapon of war," Pelosi said. Advertisement Pelosi was in Syracuse Thursday as part of a statewide push to ban the .50-caliber rifle, which uses a bullet that's six inches long and can hit a target from more than...

http://www.nbc5.com/politics/4292331/detail.html?z=dp&dpswid=2265994&dppid=65193 I'm just including a link, since the website indicates that the material cannot be "published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed."

NEWS RELEASE Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms12500 N.E. Tenth PlaceBellevue, WA  98005CCRKBA BLASTS CNN REPORT ALERTING TERRORISTS HOW TO OBTAIN .50 CAL. RIFLESFor Immediate Release: February 22, 2005 The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) today condemned a sensational report on CNN that not only alerts potential terrorists on possible misuses of .50-caliber sporting rifles, but also literally provides a "road map" on how to obtain one of these cumbersome and very expensive firearms. "In yet another media attempt to demonize a particular firearm, which CNN's own reporter, Drew...