No one disputes that a .50-caliber semiautomatic rifle delivers a missile-like wallop.
Forbes Magazine wrote in 2001 that they’ve “become the darlings of the Marine Corps’ Scout Snipers and the Army’s Special Forces because they can knock out targets up to 2 miles away and have enough firepower to take down a helicopter, wipe out radar installations or blast through a reinforced bunker.”
They’re also legal for sale in Illinois.
Gunmaker Barrett Firearms Manufacturing boasts on its Web site that its formidable Model 82A1 has been purchased by more than 40 militaries worldwide. That’s great for Barrett. It’s great for the troops–the ones on our side. But it’s not so great for the general safety of the American public if such guns are readily available to anyone who walks into a dealership and plunks down $7,775.
The gun lobby has been furiously at work this week trying to convince lawmakers that a gun and ammunition with this kind of destructive firepower is still a legitimate and standard hunting tool. It isn’t. This is a gun that can take out low-flying aircraft. It can puncture armor. It can be used for assassinations or to attack chemical or industrial plants, thanks to its long-range firepower. Unless one is hunting mammoths or dinosaurs, it’s hard to justify the sporting need for a nearly 5-foot-long weapon that fires the largest commercially available cartridge in the world.
Unfortunately, that’s still not entirely clear to a handful of legislators who are undecided on whether to support a state ban on .50-caliber rifles and ammunition, and on other semiautomatic assault weapons, assault weapon attachments and large capacity ammunition feeding devices. They should know better.
Their districts are largely suburban and generally supportive of such easily justifiable gun control measures. The undecideds are said to include Reps. Ruth Munson (R-Elgin), Lee Daniels (R-Elmhurst), Suzanne Bassi (R-Rolling Meadows), John Millner (R-Carol Stream), Patricia Bellock (R-Hinsdale), Joe Dunn (R-Naperville), Renee Kosel (R-New Lenox), JoAnn Osmond (R-Antioch) and Patricia Reid Lindner (R-Aurora).
Now, at $7,775 or so a pop, there aren’t going to be many .50 caliber semiautomatic rifles on the streets of Illinois. The point is: The state has to be able to draw a line on what is legal and proper for hunting and defense, and this is way past the line.
The measures are expected to come up for a vote in the House as early as Thursday.
Barrett advertises on its Web site that its gun is “downright fun to shoot.” That surely may be so. But when a degree of extra fun for hunters clashes with heightened concerns about general public safety in an age of terrorism, that’s where the debate ends.
If someone is so determined to have “downright fun” by firing .50-caliber weapons, no doubt there’s a U.S. military recruitment center just down the street, eager for visitors.
