If we listen to the anti-gun crowd the big, bad .50 caliber (BMG) rifle poses a "clear and present danger" in our country. Such a large and powerful weapon should not be allowed to be owned by honest American gunowners if we are to believe the Violence Policy Center and the Brady Campaign. But how many times have they been used by criminals in this country to actually harm or kill someone here? The answers: few and none. If we look at the VPC's own website it lists mainly a relative few cases where these rifles were either found in possession of criminals, or smuggled out of the country. There are only five, that's five cases of them being used during a crime in the US. In one of the five, it was only pointed at an officer of the law. In the other cases, shots were fired, but there is no evidence in the four other cases of anyone being physically shot or killed with the weapon. Why have these weapons been so safe? Could their ignorance of the weapon be because few, if any of these anti-gunners has even tried to carry one of these weapons, much less fire one? They wouldn't understand how useless these would be for ordinary criminals to use in their daliy acts of armed robbery, rape and gang activity. For example, the semiauto Barrett M82 sniper rifle weighs 30.9 lbs. Unless one is Rambo, it cannot be fired acurately from anywhere but a prone or emplaced position. A typical thug will not pay $8,900 for one of these plus about $4 and up a round, and then lug the heavy, unconcealable weapon into his target area. He will then have to put the rifle in the prone firing position and then sight though the narrow field of a scope. The VPC and Brady Bunch suggest these bolt and semiauto rifles could be used to take down helecopters and jets. Yes it is possible, but not likely. Trying to hit a moving aircraft with a heavy scoped weapon works in Hollywood, but it is rubbish in the real world. One would need the Ma Duce .50 machine gun on a AA mount to have any chance of taking them down. However the risks of being caught doing this brash act would undermine its success. The record of safety of .50 caliber weapons in this country speaks for itself. Gun control activists should concentrate on punishing the felon instead of grabbing the gun.
Uncle Ferd says dey ain't no more dangerous... ... dan a P-51 atta Reno air show... ... dat answer yer question fer ya?
I think its because they are too expensive, and the ammo...forget about it. There are not many out there would be my guess.
Most criminals want guns that come in 2 different styles. 1. They want a cheap handgun, which they can fire quickly after pulling it from a concealed location. ANd inexpensive enough where if they think they hit or killed somebody, they can throw it away. 2. They want a rapid fire semi-automatic rifle or submachine gun. This is so they can put a huge number of rounds at a group of people they are targeting. That's it. Sure, there are rare exceptions. But those are exactly what they are, exceptions. Even the rare exceptions like the "Beltway Sniper" did not actually use a sniper rifle, but an M-16 clone chambered to 5.56mm. I severely doubt that we will see things like professional sniper rifles circulating among the criminal community (other then some that may buy them to brag to their friends about).
Even as a "sniper" rifle, a Barrett is a bad choice for a criminal. An ordinary hunting rifle (say, a bolt-action .30-06) will work just as well, at a tenth the price and not one-hudredth the hassle.
