Alphecca

.50 Caliber BMG Ban in CA

The ban on the the .50 BMG in California went into effect on the first of the year. From the New York Times:

California has become the first state to ban a powerful .50-caliber long-range rifle that gun control advocates portray as a military firearm that could easily fall into the hands of terrorists bent on assassination or shooting down an airplane.

Under the ban, which was signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in September and took effect on Jan. 1, it is now illegal to manufacture, sell, distribute or import a weapon known as the .50-caliber BMG, or Browning machine gun rifle, a single-shot weapon widely used not only by law enforcement officers and the military but, more recently, by civilian sport shooters as well.

The new law limits possession to those who already own the rifle; they have until April 30, 2006, to register it or face a misdemeanor charge.
[...]
"They can pierce the skin of an aircraft," said Daniel R. Vice, a lawyer with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a central supporter of the law. "It could be used to shoot down an airplane. And we certainly don't want to wait until a terrorist buys one before we ban it."

The legislation's author, Assemblyman Paul Koretz, a Democrat from West Hollywood, concedes that street criminals would most likely view the .50 BMG as too much gun for the typical robbery or drive-by shooting. Rather, the law is intended to help keep the weapon out of the hands of "terrorists, general nut cases and survivalists," Mr. Koretz said, citing government reports suggesting that it had been used in assassinations overseas and that at least 25 had been bought by Osama bin Laden.

It's just a rifle. It can shoot two miles. Big deal! Lots of hunting rifles can shoot two miles. Should they all be banned? Well, if you talk to folks at the Brady Bunch, I'm sure they'd quickly say, "yes".

One problem is the terminology. Barrett themselves refers to the military versions of their rifles as sniper rifles and naturally the press then assumes that all of the various versions of the guns are designed for "snipers".

The fact is, the only people who would probably buy the .50 BMG are collectors and other enthusiasts and they are the LEAST likely to use the weapon criminally. And as the article concedes, there are no recorded instances of it being used in a crime in the US.

But, it's big and "scary looking" and that is, after all, the gun-controller's definition of an "assault weapon" so let's ban it. And if it's the caliber that they find so scary, well, what about those "assault muskets" that fire .50 balls of lead? And if .50 caliber is "scary" then .45 or .44 must be a "little scary" so let's ban those calibers. And on and on.

Update: Of course, to hear Michelle Malkin tell it, you might think that California leaders were correct...