Around 5pm today, VPC hosted a nice little dog & pony show on CSPAN-2 devoted to smearing the .50. It was truly awful! The dude was brilliant at hyperbole and twisting facts around. Joseph Goebbels could not have done any better. The best part was the Greenpeace woman (who looked like she handn't been laid in years) who talked about "worst case" scenarios if a fifty was used against a chemical plant. Well, worst cases always sound awful, don't they, lady? Here's a worse case for you: You will die alone!
The guy wants all fifties to be added to the NFA--still "legal" but just regulated out of existence, and costs of ownership driven sky high. Thanks a bunch, you weenie!
He mentioned that some of these anti-tank sniper rifles (no shit, this is what he always called them) cost between $2,000 and $13,000 but that the costs are dropping. Now, I'm no terrorist, but I'll bet for $13K, I could buy a really big bomb that would do some really serious shit instead of just punching big holes in fuel storage tanks, I could blow a whole tank farm to kingdom come.
I'm sure if terrorists can't get their hands on .50 caliber rifles, it won't be any big deal to head down to a hardware or grocery store and pick up the necessary ingredients for home-made explosives! Be a lot cheaper, too, and they can pick up a couple of six packs to drink while they mix up their bombs!
If anything, the poor fifty caliber needs protecting from these creeps! If there is a danger of attacks on chemical plants, lets arm the plant guards with these weapons so they can defend themselves proper! I mean, after all, the guy put the fifty in the same category as rockets and mortars, he said so himself--devastating firepower.
I agree--present these people with the facts, or even try to debate them at all, and their standard technique is to run & hide. This happens to me all the time when I bring up these issues--an infantile response and the debate is over before it begins.