As part of the Gun banners “rhetoric over research” policy, you don’t have to look hard to find people like Paul Helmke running off at the mouth about evil .50 caliber weapons that can “shoot down airplanes and helicopters” Forgetting that there has been no documented use of a .50 in the commission of a crime in the United States, and that if terrorists can easily get ahold of these weapons and shoot down airliners with them, why havent they? The price of a couple rounds of ammo should be a bargain compared to flight school……
Lets get to the heart of the LIE…. for the uninformed, caliber is a term of measurement of the diameter of the projectile expressed in inches unless specified in millimeters. A bullet that is .22 of an inch wide is called a .22 caliber. got it? That said, there can be a wide variety of different types of bullets that have the same diameter and that is the main part of the Lie.
Below in order are,
a .75 cal musket ball which is exactly what the Minutemen and Redcoats shot at each other in Lexington.
Reproductions of the .58 Minne Ball which the North and South shot at each other in the Civil War or War of Northern aggression depending on where you went to school
a .44cal on the Left and a .50 cal AE
A collection of three .50 cals, the .500 S&W the .50 Beowulf, and another .50 Cal AE.
A .50 muzzleloaders round (confession: I know crap about muzzleloaders)
The first two are for muskets carried now by re-enactors,
The .50 action express is for this gun:
The .50 Beowulf fits this rifle as well as an AR-15 style
And the .500 S&W
The muzzleoader is a pure hunting rifle…I dont know what else it would be good for. I these at Wal-Mart all the time, especially the ones that dont sell other guns.
Do ANY of these look like they could take out an airliner???????? So what the hell are they talking about?
THIS:
You are reading that tape correctly, it is almost 6 inches high and it is indeed .50 cal. This round was designed in 1910 for this gun:
The browning M2
This gun WAS used as an anti-aircraft (and other things)gun in WWII (range of about a mile so they had to be low flying) so naturally ALL .50 cal can shoot down airliners today and they should all be banned…..
BTW, American citizens CAN and ALWAYS COULD own one of these and even during the Clinton AWB these were legally available to anyone with the $$$$ and an FFL. Concider the irony that Josh Sugarmann of the VPC is licensed to own one of these and yours truly is not…..
This the Barrett M82 which is the .50 cal “sniper rifle” used by militaries and SWAT teams across the globe. (Except L.A.P.D. Thank you Ronnie!) It does use the same round as the Browning so this is often used as the poster child for the .50 cal ban
It is almost 6 feet long, weighs 3o pounds, costs upwards of $8000 , an effective range of about a mile and half and has a recoil that could stun on ox.(BTW it has only a 10 round magazine)
With that in mind, Paul Helmke wants you to believe that a terrorist can walk in to Wal-Mart, plunk down $8900, plus $4 a round, walk out to the parking lot, put this to his shoulder and fire 10 rounds with perfect aim at an airliner almost 7 miles away that is traveling almost 500 MPH and hit enough vital parts to cause it to blow up in mid air and come crashing to earth killing all aboard? Is it possible that he does more drugs than Charlie Sheen????????
SO the idea that .50 cal weapons need to be banned because they can take out an airline is a LLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEE and they KNOW its a lie but they tell it anyway because they think you are stupid. Don’t fall for this line of crap….
2alago 