Manufacturing .50-Caliber Paranoia

October 29, 2001

Dave Workman

Apparently thirsty for a headline as an election year looms, Connecticut

state Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, D-East Haven, and Senate Majority Leader

George C. Jepsen, D-Stamford, are following U.S. Rep. Rod Blagojevich,

D-Ill., in an effort to invent an issue where none exists, by demonizing

the .50-caliber rifle.

Blagojevich is running for governor of Illinois. Jepsen is running for

governor of Connecticut. Can this only be a coincidence? Perhaps Lawlor,

co-chairman of the legislative Judiciary Committee, just needs an issue

to give him some camera time.

They have apparently used a questionable “study” written by Tom Diaz

from the virulently anti-gun Violence Policy Center to attack the

.50-caliber rifle as a terrorist sniper rifle. Diaz falsely intimated

that the gun industry sold 25 of these rifles directly to Osama bin

Laden’s al Qaeda terrorist network. Diaz sneered that these rifles are

an “ideal tool” for terrorists. Now Jepsen and Lawlor have picked up the

ball and are attempting to run with it.

Had they bothered to check (or perhaps they did check and simply do not

want to bother Courant readers with the facts), they would have noted

that those 25 rifles were sold to the U.S. government more than 10 years

ago. Our government subsequently turned them over to bin Laden when he

was fighting Russian troops in Afghanistan, long before he became a

dreaded terrorist.

Fear of bin Laden provides this pair an opportunity to grab the

spotlight with an angle that gives their anti-gun posturing some

immediacy. They are trying to capitalize on the Sept. 11 attack to push

their own partisan agenda. Even for a politician, that’s deplorable.

The .50-caliber rifle is a cumbersome, expensive gun used by sport

shooters and competitors in the United States. Developed originally by

Tennessee gun maker Ronnie Barrett, they range in cost from $3,500 to

$7,300. The typical owner of such a gun might be considered eccentric,

but hardly a terrorist. He is no more a threat to the neighborhood than

the fellow who tinkers with sport cars; one goes fast, the other goes

“BOOM!”

I do not own one of these rifles. Never have, never will, because they

simply do not interest me. However, that does not mean that my neighbor

should be prohibited from owning one, or be treated like a criminal for

wanting one. Yet these people and the guns they own are being singled

out for a dose of social bigotry from two headline-hunting politicians.

The .50-caliber rifle is all steel, weighs about 25 pounds, is more than

40 inches long, and it would take a miracle for a terrorist or a street

thug to carry one concealed. But for an anti-gun extremist in need of a

boogeyman, the .50 caliber rifle is a convenient demon du jour.

Scott Harshbarger, former Massachusetts attorney general who now heads

Common Cause and has his own record of bigotry against gun owners, has

whined that “the availability of these kinds of weapons is rather

shocking.”

What is more shocking is that intelligent, rational people in

Connecticut and elsewhere would be gulled into thinking there is a

problem with people owning these guns.

I have found no conclusive evidence that any of these legally owned

rifles have ever been used in a crime, with the exception of one rifle

being allegedly used by a former Southern police officer to rob an

armored car.

The several .50-caliber owners of my acquaintance shoot at oil drums,

old car hulks, abandoned appliances and other goofy targets. What’s

wrong with that? They have broken no laws and harmed no one.

In short, show me the crime spree. Show me the epidemic of .50-caliber

rifle murders.

So long as demagogues can bamboozle the press into spreading hysteria

against firearms – any firearms – they will continue to deflect public

attention away from their own failure to defeat real crime and real

criminals, much less real terrorism and genuine terrorists.

But at least they appear busy, and most important for a good video clip,

they look and sound concerned.

Dave Workman is director of communications for the Citizens Committee

for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, based in Bellevue, Wash., senior

editor of Gun Week and a member of the National Rifle Association board

of directors.