Monday, February 14, 2005

The Hounds Pick Up the Scent...

This from yesterday's Salt Lake City Tribune, more hounds baying on the .50 cal trail:
WASHINGTON - From the headquarters of the Fifty Caliber Shooters Association in the central Utah town of Monroe, John Robertson publishes a magazine for the group's worldwide members extolling the virtues of the most powerful gun available to the public.

With a .50-caliber rifle, an experienced marksman can hit a rock the size of a Volkswagen Beetle from a distance of two miles. The gun can drop a bull moose dead in its tracks even after the bullet passes through a 5-inch-diameter tree branch. And a shot from the gun will pierce anything from a 3 1/2 -inch-thick manhole cover to a 600-pound safe or a stack of cinder blocks.

While enthusiasts revel in the gun's next-zip-code range and staggering impact velocity, those same features have some members of Congress declaring it a menace to national security.
With the entire national gun control movement sputtering like 1952 Ford truck, and Sarah Brady not only unable to reach "all three networks" with a single phone call, but having trouble getting a mention in the Wonkette's gossip blog even with La Sarah's phalanx of media spinners, the dogs badly need a win.

And they smell blood with the big .50s, partly because The Governator knows less than nothing about "live" guns and way too much about California politics and partly because disinformation specialists (a.k.a. lying weasels) like Tom Diaz at the Violence Policy Center are betting that the rank and file gun owners won't rally around something as obscure and scary-looking as a .50 BMG rifle.

Let me give you a hint of what's waiting in the wings. Check out this article on Brady's newest attacks on the 5.7 X 28 Five-seveN pistol. IMO, the anti-little-bitty-bullet and the anti-great-big-bullet people are working on a common strategy to define virtually every rifle bullet on earth as "armor-piercing." This is the coming battlefield, folks. And before you say, "hey, hey, hey, it ain't me, babe," let's talk about shotgun slugs against body armor!

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous6:08 PM

    "With a .50-caliber rifle, an experienced marksman can hit a rock the size of a Volkswagen Beetle from a distance of two miles"

    A rock the size of a Volkswagen Beetle? What about an actual Volkswagen Beetle, or a target, or a bush, or even CHEESE?
    Weird. I've wanted a .50BMG, but can't afford one, nor does my local range have a long enough bay to 'stretch its legs'.

    Overload in Colorado

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