Federal 50 Cal Regulation
Dianne ’38 in her purse’ Feinstein has proposed a bill that would require registering 50 caliber rifles under the NFA. This would, in essence, subject them to the same regulations as suppressors and machine guns. This quote shows just what sort of hysterical rhetoric they have to resort to:
“For instance, a sniper atop the Washington Monument (with a .50-caliber rifle) could target anybody or anything within a four-mile radius, including the White House, the Capitol, every building on or around the Mall, and aircraft flying in and out of Reagan National Airport,” Feinstein said in a statement.
Four mile radius? Tell you what, Dianne, I’ll make this bet with you. If you can hit a man-sized target at four miles with any Barrett rifle, I’ll shut my website down, contribute $100 annually to the Brady Campaign, and give up my AR15. What do you say?
Update: Ravenwood puts it into context.
May 3rd, 2005 at 9:27 am
I suppose someone up there could target anyone, and with about the same effectiveness as if he bracketed the target with his fingers (along his line of sight) and squeezed them together saying, “I’m crushing your head! I’m crushing your head!”
May 3rd, 2005 at 11:08 am
A bit more realistic perspective:
Assuming you could, somehow, get one up to the top and park it there, an M1A2 Abrams tank, with a 120mm cannon, laser rangefinder and computer fire control, would be at the fringes of it’s effective range trying to hit a tank size target at 4 miles (6400 meters) away.
A .50BMG bullet might actually fly 4 miles, but you’re not going to be able to hit anything effectively. And that assumes you can even see a target to aim at at that range.
May 3rd, 2005 at 6:23 pm
It would be interesting to see how someone could drag a very heavy .50 rifle up the steps/elavator (never been there do they have an elavator?)and nonchalantly whip it out once on top to take pot shots without someone “noticing”.
May 3rd, 2005 at 8:11 pm
*elevator (i type to fast)
May 4th, 2005 at 5:27 am
How stupid is Dianne Feinstein? She speculates on someone taking a .50 cal sniper rifle up to the top of the Washington Monument!
I’ve been to the top of the Washington Monument, so… Assuming 1) nobody notices you carrying it in the elevator, which is a little bigger than a phone booth, and 2) HELLO! it’s not like there’s an observation platform at the top! The observation area is about the size of your average clothes closet and the windows are about an inch thick, set in stone.
DiFi is as dumb as dirt, and she and California deserve each other.
May 4th, 2005 at 7:56 am
Barry, if you’re strong enough and sneaky enough to carry a 28 pound 5 foot long rifle up those stairs, you could knock out the window with the gun butt – and why wouldn’t the magical invisibility spell that got the rifle through without being noticed also keep the window breakage from being noticed? 😉