SOME TRUTHS AND FALSES
ABOUT 50 BMG RIFLES
Let
us do a little FAQ about 50 BMG rifles. There seems to be more
misinformation than decent truthful information. This is not abnormal considering
that gun control as an ideal in general is based on emotion not fact. I
want to address the most inflammatory of the group first.
“A
50 BMG can be used to bring down a jetliner!”
Considering
that a common pigeon could bring down a jetliner I say “Why would
they bother trying?” The question is loaded, seeing as any kind
of firearm could theoretically bring down a jetliner. A shot from a .22
in the right spot could “theoretically” make it happen.
This would require a perfect shot into a mechanical apparatus that
wasn’t redundant. The chances of bringing down a jetliner at any
altitude with weapons larger than a 50 BMG even during takeoff and
landing would take a shot which would involve more luck than skill.
Simply making a half inch hole in a critical spot on such a huge
aircraft while it is flying would be a shot envied by heroic
anti-aircraft battery operators of World War Two. The chances of
hitting a flying object with a rifle of any kind are slight. If this
were not true bird hunting with shotguns would never have been created.
Please
consider this; a wooden Japanese A6M “Zero” from WWII
loaded was loaded with much more explosive gasoline and munitions such
as bombs and torpedoes. It was powered by only one engine and was
without the benefit of self sealing tanks or redundant systems. Even a
zero could simply fly home after being pounded by the six 50 BMG wing
mounted machine guns from a pursuing Navy F6F Hellcat in the Pacific
theater. Six 50 BMG Machine guns! That would be literally hundreds of
50 BMG holes in seconds, and simply fly home.
“A
50 BMG hole would cause rapid or explosive decompression of a
jetliner!”
There
is a television show I enjoy with a couple characters from San Francisco called “Myth
Busters”. Their test methods are not always strictly scientific
but they are thorough and often exceed the static testing procedures
found in laboratories with a more reasonable and much more dynamic
hands on test which often and easily exceeds the parameters that could
be established in a lab.
They
had an episode where they pressurized the cabin of an aircraft and
commenced to perforating it with 9mm (around .36 inch) projectiles. It
seems that there was no explosive effect even with the cabin
pressurized beyond that of normal convention. A 50 BMG is about just
over .14 inch larger in diameter, or roughly the diameter of a bb-gun
pellet larger.
It
seems that a jetliner cabin is actually already full of holes and it has
a few compressors which do the job quite well of keeping up with the
leakage that occurs in a cabin. This is why armed sky marshals are once
again flying on planes without fear of a bullet hitting damaging even a
window in a jetliner.
The
windows in a jetliner are of lexan and safety glass. They have two
panes. Even if one or both are perforated neither will explode or
“shoot out”.
“A
terrorist can buy a 50 BMG in a gun store and use it for terrorist
attacks!”
Why
would a terrorist bother? With rockets and mortars and missiles at
their disposal, why would they bother with some competition rifle?
Joe
terrorist is going to go to a gun store counter, hand over $3000 of
hard earned terrorist support money, and identify himself to
authorities to have his background check run to buy a weapon that
isn’t even ideal for the work he intends. A 50 BMG rifle has one
purpose, and only one purpose, sporting use. It can’t be used to
kill a person “dead-er”. It is too expensive to obtain and
equip for criminals to consider. Knowing a few owners of 50 BMG’s
I have yet to see one that could afford a $3000 rifle but not the $500
safe to keep it in. Terrorists are lazy, they are opportunists, and
like water or electricity they take the path of least resistance. Why
bother with trying to crack some guys safe or risk capture by
authorities by buying one. You think a terrorist would go to a gun
store where he can only buy a semi-automatic AK47 instead of just
bringing his own fully automatic version? The borders are wide open,
they can just cross at night, toss stuff over a fence, or simply have
some drug runners deliver all of the bombs, guns, and rockets purchased
from the third world countries to the south.
“A
terrorist sniper could use a 50 BMG to commit a super long range shot
for an assassination or attack on a chemical plant!”
Considering
that the popular figure tossed around by gun banners is 4500 meters,
after all of the years that 50 BMG’s have been around (much
longer than the 1987 figure used by most gun banners) it wasn’t
until recently that a shot of nearly half that distance was finally
perpetrated against a stationary target by Canadian snipers in
Afghanistan. It seems that a professional Canadian sniper taking his
time to make a few shots until he finally hit his target fired a
distance of around 2500 meters. This is a government trained
individual, with better equipment that most people have, in an ideal
situation, making multiple shots to hit a stationary target.
The
best 50 BMG shooters in the world are actually national competitors.
They shoot at 6 foot by 6 foot targets at a distance of exactly 1000
yards. For a typical “average Joe” like me trained in
shooting in regular military training I can tell you that shooting at
something 1000 yards away usually yields a shot that completely misses
the target, and I qualified an expert marksman rating.
A
50 caliber projectile, in tracer, incendiary, or even the hard to get
military exploding ammunition shown on this page actually does a very
poor job of igniting stored flammable liquids or gases. It is not like
on TV where one shot from the hero's gun ignites the gas tank of the
escaping bad guy’s car incinerating them in a huge fireball.
Remember the thing I mentioned with the Japanese Zero earlier?
Contained flammables just won't ignite very easily when exposed to the
kind of momentary ignition source provided by a hot, incendiary, or
tracer bullet. A much more sure fire way to get something like that to
light off is some explosive, the kind planted by terrorists as bomb, or
from a rocket (which I mentioned earlier) of the kind insurgents use
everyday against our troops overseas. Once again, why bother with
something that won't or is likely not to work when you have tools that
will?
So
in conclusion I would like to say that 50 BMG rifles have never actually been used in the
commission of a crime, because the capabilities, costs, and size and
weight of the rifle make it impractical if not impossible to do so.
Using the "Oh no, terrorists! 9/11, etc." excuse to limit
the freedoms of Americans is a job the government is doing well enough
on their own, without some self serving and misleading gun grabbing
groups or liberal agendas media jumping on the band wagon.
I
would like to also note to liberal press 2nd amendment
attackers out there that in a recent survey of 112,003 high school
students, 1 in 3 think the press and 1st amendment ought to
be more restricted.
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