Yet more from ".50 caliber terror"...

Yet another email newsletter from those gun bigots. I won't link to them, because they don't deserve the traffic... but I will fisk them.

We're back at www.50caliberterror.com offering you another update about one of the Gun Lobby's most ridiculous attempts yet to protect the makers of big guns like the .50 Caliber Sniper Rifle. How big are we talking? Oh, big enough to shoot a bullet that can pierce a tank at over a mile's distance. Big enough to shoot across 20 NFL football fields. Big enough to keep out of the hands of terrorists.

Last I checked, terrorists seem to prefer using AK-47s and trusting to Allah to guide their bullets to the target. I'm very skeptical about claims the .50 could pierce a tank made more recently than WWII at any range. And shooting across 20 football fields (that's 2000 yards) isn't hard for the rifle; just point up and fire. Simple ballistics. Hitting anything at that distance is another matter, and that takes years of training.

The NRA has a highly controversial and thoroughly discredited "academic" they trot out whenever they are in a tight spot. As such, it is no surprise that this hack, John Lott ([5]AKA Mary Rosh), reared his ugly head in an April 11 Washington Times (owned by the mysterious Rev. Moon) editorial, defending potential terrorist's right to purchase 50 caliber sniper rifles -- and all the weaponry they can fit into the back of a white Ford pick-up truck.

To the extent Lott is controversial, it's largely because the left has manufactured the controversy. While the man made some poor decisions trying to promote his books, the gun bigots have turned that into an all-out attack on his character -- most likely because they can't readily refute his research. It's telling that this email newsletter spends more time trying to push the character issue than it does actually advancing counterarguments or rational analysis.

Lott's most famous research project (described in More Guns, Less Crime) found that concealed-carry laws significantly reduced crime rates. The best the left has managed to do so far is to suggest that maybe the laws didn't have any effect, when you analyze the data differently. That's not what I would call "discreditted". More like "advancing the collective understanding of criminal behavior with innovative research".

As for potential terrorists purchasing rifles... well, we're all potential terrorists. We have due process of law in the United States last I checked, and suspected terrorists get the benefits from it too.

Most recently John "Mary Rosh" Lott, who has found safe harbor at the right wing American Enterprise Institute where he is apparently in charge of the gun industry shilling department, blamed the recent Atlanta court shootings on affirmative action:"You have a female officer who is about 5 feet 2 inches tall, versus a criminal -- in this case a former linebacker who is 6 feet tall," Lott told FOX News. But isn't the gun that the deputy sheriff was carrying supposed to be the great equalizer against just such an unarmed assailant?

I don't see any relation to .50 caliber rifles here, but what the hell. Yes, the gun the deputy sheriff was carrying is supposed to be the great equalizer. But it's not a panacea. In this situation, where controlling a prisoner with non-lethal force is preferred, it offers almost no advantage at all. It is not suitable for controlling a prisoner because it only has two settings: off and dead.

Note also the the use of ad hominem rather than reasoned debate. All too typical of the left in general, and the gun control bigots in particular.

Posted on 2005-04-27 02:07:56.0 by matthew@triggerfinger.org

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