For Gun Banners, Any Excuse Will Do
by Larry Pratt

The anti-gun crowd has never liked the .50 caliber rifle. They have
depicted it as a threat to national security because of its destructive
power as well as the ease with which the weapon can supposedly fall into

the hands of terrorist or extremist groups.

Somehow, it stretches credulity to suggest that a thirty-plus pound gun
that is usually fired off a tripod is the sort of thing that Al Capone
is
going to conceal under his trench coat until he’s inside the bank.

In fact, it is just plain impossible to find crimes committed with this
gun that starts at $2500 and can top $10,000.

For people who have a mantra about “keeping guns out of the wrong
hands,”
this gun comes out of central casting, according to them, anyway.

Still, there’s this nagging fact problem that .50 calibers aren’t used
in
crime. And, let’s face it, even if they were, they are constitutionally

protected. Or better yet, my ownership of one is constitutionally
protected.

Well, the Violence Policy Center’s Tom Diaz tried to invent a fact –
since
none exist — to support their cry to ban the “terrible” .50 caliber.

Diaz charged that gun manufacturers are so bloodthirsty that they
knowingly
sold at least 25 of these tank-stoppers to Usama bin Laden.

That was the kind of thinking that got Illinois candidate for governor,
Rep.
Rod Blagojevich, to introduce legislation calling for the banning of
private possession of .50 calibers.

On closer examination, the Violence Policy Center “fact” about selling
these rifles to bin Laden looks a bit different than when spun by the
VPC.
Turns out the guns were sold to the Mujahadin with State Department
approval
when the Afghans were fighting off the Soviet invasion over a decade
ago.
At the time bin Laden was on our side.

David Koresh had a .50 caliber at Waco. At the time of the raid, Koresh
was
under the mistaken assumption that because he had violated no firearms
laws,
the BATF would play fair and keep the law. He tried to talk to the BATF

rather than shoot it out. His .50 caliber rifle was never fired. But
to
hear it from the VPC’s Tom Diaz, David Koresh’s ownership of one of
these
guns is another “proof” that they need to be banned.

The one thing that is predictable about gun banners is that any excuse,
no
matter how implausible, will do in the drive to ban guns.

As for me, I wish I had the money to own and fire a .50 caliber. It
would
sure upset Tom Diaz, and that is almost reason enough to run out and buy

one.

And while we’re on the subject of terrorism, here’s a news item that
comes
out of left field. At first, I had to read it twice; I wasn’t sure I
had
gotten it right.

The Wildlife Watch in New York issued a frenzied statement calling for
the
suspension of New York’s annual hunting season. Why? Well, it’s
obvious,
at least to the Wildlife Watch.

You see, hunting “is just a wonderful opportunity for someone who would
want to do a terrorist act. They don’t have to report their whereabouts
and
can be lurking everywhere. They can lurk in groups.”

Perhaps the Wildlife Watch should take a deep breath and chill out lest
they
convince the world that they see a terrorist under every rock.

I am thankful that some of my friends see a bambi behind every tree,
though, and are willing to share with me the results of their animal
“terrorism.” Does my preference for the roasts make me an unindicted
co-conspirator of a terrorist network?
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