A government report on ".50-caliber terror"

[krispos42]

Government Accountability Office report from 1999 on all those .50-caliber semiautomatic rifles that can shoot down airliners and communications satellites.

It's a PDF created from a Xerox, so I can't copy-and-paste like I would like to, but there does not seem to be a single U.S. death caused by them at the time the report was issued.

In a 78-month timespan, 28 semitauto .50s had an ATF trace run on them. That's four a year.

Of the .50-caliber semiautos seized by the ATF in raids, all but one were part of a multi-dozen or multi-hundred gun arsenal, usually by militias or religious nutbags.

http://archive.gao.gov/f0502/162586.pdf

[ingac70]

1. Fearmongering....

hope it gets the militia types and religious nutbags to see they aren't immune from the actions of the Bush Administration.

[Tejas]

14. They might see but

won't actually care until crap like the Patriot Act affects them personally. Even then, maybe not until it affects them in their home.

*looks for sheep in camo on giggle images

[RC]

2. "...shoot down... communications satellites."???

Yah sure, ya betcha.

[ingac70]

3. See? Fear mongering bullshit.

From a GOP controlled GOA in '99.

Mmmm....I really think this needs to be highlighted on right wing gun rights sites!

[krispos42]

6. Sarcasm level 8.3

:-)

The Sniper Rifle That Terrorists Can Freely
Buy In The United States

The .50 Caliber Sniper Rifle puts us all at risk whenever we fly in an airplane. These powerful sniper rifles which were designed for the battlefield to puncture armor and destroy targets from long range are easier to get than a handgun in the United States.

Why should we be spending billions of dollars on homeland security when a terrorist can buy a sniper rifle that can shoot armor piercing bullets up to 2000 yards with great accuracy? Why do we permit the sale of a weapon that is powerful enough to threaten civilian airplanes taxiing on the runway or during landing and takeoff? These weapons have been listed by authorities as a serious threat against our nuclear and chemical plants. Your safety is at stake because these weapons are so readily available.

<more>

http://www.50caliberterror.com/

[sailor65]

4. I don't recall

anyone ever claiming the 50 could drop a satellite, and very few who think one could actually drop an airliner, either. Do you have a link where some clown claimed that?

None of the guys I know, including myself, who have used the rifle would make such a crazy claim.

[krispos42]

7. See post #6 n/t

[dairydog91]

15. I've seen at least one Gungeon poster go pretty far...

...they claimed that the .50 rifle had the same anti-air power as a Stinger missile.

[seriousstan]

5. multi-dozen? No shit, a 50cal semiauto isn't your first gun purchase. Imagine that.

I have a shotgun semi, 22 rifle semi, 22 pistol semi, 9mm pistol semi, 22mag rifle semi.
My son has a double barrel 20g shotgun, 22cal lever rifle.

I guess I should wait to get that 50 semiauto until I can get my arsenal numbers a little higher.

[Hangingon]

8. Good old GAO

They will always give your representative or senator a report that fits his goals.

[virginia mountainman]

9. I think, the major reason the anti's push .50 cal bans is..

Very similar to the assault weapon ban, first they scared the crap out of a gun-neophyt public with out right lies and "scary" terms, like suddenly, a medium caliber, semi automatic rifle became "assault weapon" over night.

I believe that the real push, is to get the sheep to become scared of the term "Sniper Rifle". They talk about how it can reach out a mile and kill and such. Well, lots of common, hunting rifles can hit with accuracy almost that far out

I believe that their plan was, just like assault weapon, first tell outright lies, like the "take down a jetliner" Bullshit..

Get the public tuned to hating "sniper weapons" and then to follow up with bans on scoped deer rifles.

Because they are "SNIPER" Weapons....And REAL HUNTERS would use open sights anyway...because these scopes are for killing people.

Before you laugh, look at what happened with the Assault weapon ban, and the misuse of terms their. These nutcases are confusing common SKS carbines, with full auto AK47's and doing it with NO shame.

[krispos42]

12. It's incrementalism

You get the populace all hot and bothered over one tiny but very marketable segment and get them to vote for it.

The pro-life nuts do it with the very rare late-term abortion procedure. All of a sudden, it's "partial-birth abortion" being performed a million times a year. When the real purpose is to the the public to "compromise" on the issue repeatedly until the right is gone.

The true fact is, and you can read it on the gunguys.com website, is that what drives them absolutely insane is the potential of the population fully exercising their rights. gunguys.com go on and on about how anybody can buy any weapon in unlimited quanitities without restriction, and they yap about that endlessly. They do it so that people think about the types of people they are uncomfortable with having that right exercising it to the fullest extent.

For example, "rednecks" and "militia types" and "Minutemen" and "Rethuglicans" being able to buy as many handguns, sniper rifles, and tactical long arms as they want to just makes the rest of the country shiver.

Likewise, the though of women being able to walk into any abortion clinic and get an abortion done, on the spot, with no restrictions or input from the father or waiting period or attempt at adoption or counseling makes semi-liberal people squeamish.

[RL3AO]

10. Using physics, and disregarding any air resistance...

For a bullet to reach a geosynchronous communication satellite, it would need to be shot out at:

26489 m/s
or
86906 ft/s

[krispos42]

11. A paltry 16.5 miles per second

A mere 21 times faster than the fastest rifle bullet!

The magic .50 BMG can do that! It has "machine gun" in it's name! IT CAN DO ANYTHING!

In fact, I'm going to shoot the Moon with it and break it in half. Then I'm going start shooting the chunks with my "deadly assault weapon of mass destruction bullet hose" (which is also powerful enough to reach the Moon, by the way) and pretty soon Earth will have a beautiful ring system that generations of children will enjoy!!!

What about the children?!?!?!?!?




:rofl:

[Tejas]

13. You have no clue and probably don't care

as to what the recoil is going to do to mother earth. As if she doesn't have enough problems already, not only are you going to tilt her axis but the oceans will rush in to fill the dent you're going to leave. Your antics could and probably will affect even the speed of earth's rotation. Will it speed up or slow down? You didn't think about any of this did you?

Do it for the children?
Are you kidding?
Have you any clue as to how the sonic boom from such a stunt will affect their hearing, much less scare them all half to death??!?

Bah, and you call yourself a responsible firearms owner!













:)

Hmm, I assume you'd use a tracer round and at that velocity, at what distance do you figure it will light?

[krispos42]

16. Ah, you don't know me...

I'm going to fire my fifty-caliber terror weapon northward, so the recoil reduces the Earth's axial tilt. Seasons will be milder, with less extreme heat in the summer and less extreme cold in the winter. It will effectively neutralize the effects of global climate change!

Am I awesome, or what?

And to be even awesomer, I'm going to do it from the Rocky Mountains, so the recoil will flatten the mountains, allowing easier travel from coast to coast AND warm, moist air in from the Pacific to water the drought-stricken prairies!

The kids, eh. They have their iPods plugged in and cranked up. I doubt they'll even notice the boom...


I await my Nobel prize nomination!

[jody]

17. ROFLMAO

:rofl: :hi:

[SteveM]

18. And I'll spill my hot tea while taking a bath! (nt)

[Eagle_Eye]

19. Are you going to use those 'cheese piercing rounds'?

They are only legal in four states, and Minnesota isn't one of them.

[Tejas]

21. Saw some at a gunshow

next to the jerky vendor!

[Recursion]

20. Assuming a 41 gram bullet...

...and 0.1 seconds acceleration time, it would require 10,860 Newtons of force to achieve that speed (discounting air resistance and barrel friction). Assuming a 1.5 meter barrel and reducing the resulting differential equation to a linear one, that's about 20,000 Joules of energy being expended.

Man, I got to get me one of those...