The .50 BMG -- a fear looking for a rationalization

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Garand Illusion

New member
The Freedom States Alliance (FSA) has built a whole website on the fear of the .50 BMG rifle, giving it even the ability to shoot down aircraft or be used against concrete bunkers.

50 CALIBER TERROR

So gunguys.com, part of FSA, had just loads of fun wetting their pants and screaming like little girls about the danger of the .50 caliber rifle when some guy in Tulsa pointed a ".50 caliber sniper rifle" at the police so that they would kill him (suicide by cop).

Man Shot and Killed After Aiming .50 Caliber Sniper Rifle at Police During Standoff

It's terrifying to think what might have happened if an officer was shot with such a devastating weapon. It's ours, and certainly every officer's worst nightmare. A weapon designed to shoot down civilian aircraft during takeoff and landing would devastate and rip apart a person's body if shot by one of these powerful weapons.
Click to expand...

Trouble is ... it was a .50 BLACK POWDER rifle. Which might bring down an Elk but they are rarely used in air defense or fixed bunker assaults!

You've almost got to feel sorry for the anti .50 people. It's like trying to cause terror in the Pacific North West about Sasquatch attacks -- your group is not going to get much traction until someone is actually attacked by a sasquatch.
 
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Spot77

New member
The problem is, we're gun people and we understand the difference in the firearms.

People with no knowledge of firearms will remember, "Fifty caliber......destroy airliners" and that's exactly what the anti's want. They're not concerned with facts or about being accused of scare tactics and spreading misinformation.

They have an agenda and they'll use whatever tricks they can to achieve it.
 
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rampage841512

New member
Any gun pointed at a LEO can give him a very bad day.

A ".50 caliber sniper rifle" is a sniper rifle, not an anti-aircraft cannon. A black poweder rifle is neither. Oh, and is there anyone who could actually hit an airliner (besides on take off and landing maybe) with a .50 semiauto or bolt action rifle? And would one shot or even multiple shots from one of these rifles be enough to take down an airliner? I'd think you'd have to hit something critical like the pilots or all the engines? Seems a little far fetched. But hey, causing a panic is what gets things done after all so I'm hardly surprised.
 
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CrazyIvan007

New member
Under this ideology, we should ban umbrellas because one could arguably take down a plane by incorporating the method used in Indana Jones & the Last Crusade.
 
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SteelJM1

New member
Im trying to find an email address to let them know they're idiots to consider a .50 cal kentuky rifle in the same league as a .50 cal barrett. They probably would have sh#t their pants if the guy had a .68 or .70 cal.
 
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44 AMP

Staff
The .50 BMG has downed lots of planes!

Considering it was the US's primary offensive and defensive aircraft weapon of WWII. Our fighter planes carried 2, 4, 6, and even 8 of these fearsome weapons. And many of our bombers carried over a dozen!

Somehow these idiots have equaled the famous performance of the Browning .50 caliber machine gun with the same round fired from a rifle. And then gone even further to equate anything with a .50 caliber bore with the performance of the Browning machine gun.

While commercial airliners are not built to the same standards as combat aircraft, they do have many redundant systems, including engines. The only part of the aircraft that would guarantee a crash on take off or landing if you took it out are the pilots. And you could do that with any gun if you hit them.

The .50 BMG has been around over 80 years, and to date, AFIK, there have been no civilian airliners shot down in the USA by a gun chambered for it. As far as it being the nightmare of some police officers, they should talk to some veterans. People hit by .50 BMG, German 13mm, and Soviet 12.7mm are generally history, but dead is dead. And you are just as dead from a fatal 9mm hit as you are from a .50 BMG.

And, statistically (for decades) the one weapon that causes the greatest number of officer shootings and deaths are their own. More cops have been shot with their own guns than any other single weapon type or caliber. Weapon retention training has lowered the number over the years, but it still remains the single largest category, at least according to the FBI crime stats.
 
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Red_Eagle

New member
".50 Caliber ammunition is the largest round available on the civilian market and highly destructive armor-piercing, incendiary, and explosive rounds are easily available."

Since when are explosive and incendiary rounds avilable to the public?
 
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Yellowfin

New member
I wonder what such reporters would response would be to a few major facts when stated to them: that .50 BMG rifles and ammunition are HORRIDLY expensive and that legally owned weapons of any kind have been implicated in crimes such an absurdly low percentage of the time that the combined odds of one being used in a crime are more miniscule than a grasshopper causing fatalities.
 
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CoryS

New member
From their point of view they act like .50 cal rifles are 100 bucks and sold at every pawm shop across America.
 
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