Gun Ban: Ignorance or Political Ploy?

April 1 2004

I see that Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver is once again promoting an item of anti-gun legislation. While I am unaware of any such measure he didn't like, I have to wonder if this particular legislation is a political maneuver intended to mount an attack on the civil liberties of a small number of legitimate shooters, or is a good-faith but misguided effort stemming from his self-imposed ignorance about the firearm sports.

Sheldon Silver wants to ban 50 caliber hunting and target rifles in New York State.

Assemblyman Silver believes that these firearms could be used as terrorist weapons, and technically he's right. So can cars, airplanes, box cutters, pipe bombs, and as Oklahoma City proved, rental trucks packed with fertilizer and fuel oil. And each of those things is easier to acquire and use than a 50 caliber rifle, and is more destructive. What he fails to realize is that the 50 caliber rifle is so unlikely a weapon for a terrorist to misuse that the only likely benefit of such a law would be political.

For my readers who are not shooting enthusiasts and who don't have the duty of being an informed lawmaker, let me describe the 50MG rifle cartridge. The cartridge is about five inches from end to end. The bullet, or projectile, weighs about a tenth of a pound. The recoil of a rifle using such a cartridge is capable of dislocating a shoulder. While the weight of a typical hunting rifle is six to eight pounds, and a so-called “elephant rifle” might be ten or a bit more, in order to make recoil tolerable at all a 50MG rifle might weigh twenty to fifty pounds. And typically they are about four feet long, and many hold only a single shot. Hardly an easy to use or conceal firearm.

Is the 50 cal armor piercing as claimed? Well, it's true that there is armor piercing ammunition available, that's also true for many of the other “hunting cartridges” which have a military origin, or which are used on dangerous game. And unlike ammunition intended for use on animals, armor piercing rounds don't expand, so the 50 cal will make a hole both in and out. The history of any war from WW-II on shows that unless a lucky shot hits something vital, planes usually fly quite well with a few holes.

Imagine someone trying to hide, transport, and use such an unwieldy device as a 50 cal rifle, and then try to imagine why they would when Afghanistan and Iraq are loaded with both Soviet and American surface to air missiles, and antitank weapons. If the terrorists in Iraq don't choose to use a 50 cal why on Earth does Assemblyman Silver think someone in the USA would? A sense of fair play? Add some challenge to the job? In truth terrorists have been very clever about choosing their implements of destruction, one could only hope that the New York Assembly would be so practical!

The budget is late, again, as usual. Clearly the state government has better things to do than setting up straw men to impress the naive by passing laws protecting no one and turning respectable citizens into felons. The assembly should just forget this unnecessary law and pass something more useful, like an on-time budget.