Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: At_The_Ask who wrote (197317)	10/14/2002 1:08:33 AM
From: who cares?	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

This is why the NRA fights so nuttily, because the anti-gunners fight one gun at a time. This one will likely be a win for them, even though their argument is idiotic. Yes, I can take a 50 caliber rifle and shoot a hole in a lot of stuff, i can shoot down helicopters and small planes, shoot through armor plated limousines, kill people from a long way, but only after a ton of training. It's not automatic with a 50 that you can kill someone at 1000 yards, the average guy would be lucky to hit a car, you have to have a thousand dollar scope, and then know how to use it, adjusting for elevation, wind, good ol gravity induced bullet drop, etc. Why go to all the trouble? It's much easier for a terrorist to buy some black tipped .308 bullets(armor piercing) and shoot them out of a Remington 700(this rifle is what the majority of police snipers use, and can be bought in a civilian version for well under a thousand, in fact you can buy the actual police sniper rifle for under $700, it's bolt action, no real restriction on it). The .308 of course is nowhere near the bullet the .50 is, but it would be good enough for 98% of anything a terrorist or nutjob could think of. If not the .308 then any number of popular deer hunting rounds or even safari rounds and the rifles to shoot them are available at a hunting supply store near you. But the anti gunners don't care, they just need a win, they haven't gotten much done in several years, and so the 50 is their best bet. Even so, instead of sticking to the facts that it's a hugely powerful gun that can do a lot of damage in a trained shooters hands they have to outright lie to get sympathy. I can, without even seeing the program, bet that the anti 50 side was presented by VPC, Violence Policy Center. The VPC put out a report on 50's including this section "How the Gun Industry Armed Osama bin Laden, Other Foreign and Domestic Terrorists, and Common Criminals with 50 Caliber Sniper Rifles" In this section they claim "The threat from Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda, which has bought at least 25 Barrett 50 caliber sniper rifles, need not be exaggerated." This is surprisingly, a true statement, but, what is mentioned nowhere in the report is how Osama came by these 25 rifles. Were they smuggled out of the country, were they exchanged for hostages, were they bought here by regular joes then sold to terrorist? Well sorta the last one, actually the US Govt bought the guns from Barret and sold or gave them to the Mujahdeen(sp) freedom fighters to shoot Russkies with. Somehow this gets turned into pro-gun zealots arming terrorist. It's crap like this that makes gun owners extremely sensitive to any type of gun legislation. Now if I haven't pissed off the anti-gun crowd enough, let me further it by suggesting that the serial killer in Maryland picked one of the best places in the country to do it, for the simple reason that it is one of the most anti-gun areas in the USA. If he/she/they tried that shooter crap where I am(redneck USA)they might do it once, but after that, every bubba around that has a hunting rifle mounted on the back glass of his pick up truck would be on the lookout, and it would not be long before Mr. serial killer was taken out.