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Peace Activist Has To Admit Barrett .50 Caliber Sniper Rifle Is Pretty Cool

5K views 25 replies 14 participants last post by  Fuzz541 
#1 · (Edited)
As reported January 23, 2002 by The Onion:

Peace Activist Has To Admit Barrett .50 Caliber Sniper Rifle Is Pretty Cool

January 23, 2002 | Issue 38•02

BURLINGTON, VT—Despite his staunch opposition to the National Rifle Association and U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, peace activist Paul Robinson conceded Monday that the Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle is "pretty damn cool."


Robinson, who admits he finds the Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle (inset) "pretty damn cool."

"Look, I realize that the use of this instrument of destruction, even in wartime, is morally reprehensible, and I don't see how anyone with a conscience could justify owning one," said Robinson, 31, a University of Vermont graduate student in sociology and president of the campus chapter of Amnesty International. "But you have to admit, it's pretty wild to think that it's capable of throwing a half-inch bullet into a man-sized target 1,500 meters away."

Robinson first became aware of the high-powered, exceptionally accurate weapon in 1995 while researching U.S. military involvement in Somalia, which he protested while pursuing a masters degree at Bates College.

"While gathering data for a petition letter condemning U.S. policy in Somalia, I was appalled to learn that the Special Forces were using a gun called the Barrett M82A1 to take out trucks from a mile away," Robinson said. "A friggin' mile. Can you imagine?"

Last week, a guilt-ridden Robinson bought a copy of Guns & Ammo containing an article titled "The Guns Of Black Hawk Down," which prominently featured the Barrett.

"It's a big gun, the Barrett," said Robinson, leafing through the article. "It's about five feet long and weighs almost 30 pounds. It fires the largest widely available cartridge in the world—a machine-gun bullet, really. It can empty a 10-round magazine as fast as you can pull the trigger. And thanks to its ingenious dual-chamber muzzle brake, gases are vented away, and the user feels no more recoil than you get with a 12-gauge shotgun. Not that anyone should know what the recoil feels like on any gun."

Robinson also noted that anyone with $7,300 can buy the civilian version of the M82A1, a fact he finds "thoroughly repugnant" and "kind of tempting."

"Though I would never, ever so much as touch one, I bet the Barrett is probably very fun to shoot," Robinson said. "And the fact that anyone can get their hands on this killing machine, plus a 10-power Unertl scope and a few boxes of match-grade 750-grain cartridges, for less than $10,000, well, that's just sickening."

The pacifist added that he would be willing to meet with any interested owners of Barrett rifles in order to "open a dialogue."

Robinson's friends are appalled by his attraction to the rifle.

"Paul can praise the Barrett all he wants, but he needs to remember that it's a device whose sole function is to kill people," said Max Shorter, 28, a friend and colleague of Robinson's in the sociology department. "It might be a triumph of ballistic engineering, but that should in no way obscure the fact that this is a tool for murder."

"Plus, it failed some of the Navy's field tests for reliability and accuracy," Shorter added. "The extractors kept breaking, I seem to recall."

The source can be found at; http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28181

- Janq

Note: When I first read this I thought this has to be a joke or something. How do people like this take themselves seriously I'll never know, even as I currently live in and amongst them.
 
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#7 ·
Dont say that...it just gives the lefties something to pin us on...say something like "guns are tools, we use them to obtain food, and in some cases protect ourselves and our families" i honostly think its a bad idea to discuss ballistics on an open forum, because the anti-gunners may take it the wrong way
 
#8 ·
The .50 was designed as an AM gun. FYI.

Not as t3h uber snypar ryffel.

Despite that, it is still used to kill individuals, as it's range and flat trajectory are...impressive.
 
#10 ·
TFA said:
"It might be a triumph of ballistic engineering, but that should in no way obscure the fact that this is a tool for murder."
these fuckin hippies. if you simple accepted the fact that a gun does more then JUST kill, then what? uh oh, where did your entire argument go? that right, out the window.

all it does is send a piece of metal in a straight line for 1,500 yards at a fairly impressive speed. nothing crazy, but impressive. thats all it does. what you choose to do with that tool is purely a function of your willingness and abilities.
 
#12 ·
The Ghoul said:
The .50 was designed as an AM gun. FYI.

Not as t3h uber snypar ryffel.

Despite that, it is still used to kill individuals, as it's range and flat trajectory are...impressive.

i thought it was against some treaty or war related paperwork that says its all bad to use .50 and larger ammunition to kill an individual. anything .50 or larger is restricted to vehicle shots only.
 
#15 ·
The .50 was designed to be an anti-material gun. That means vehicles, ordinance, armed/amrored vehicles, etc.

I have seen the .50 used by NATO forces against people before. IDK if there is anything against it.

Fucking left wing extremists.
 
#17 ·
Post Whores!!!!!!!!
 
#21 ·
I don't understand why everything is about Barrett 50's and no1 has a problem with the m2's on;y the "sniper" rifles like the Barrett.

The 50bmg "sniper" rifle has been around for 30yrs it was around long before Ronnie Barrett ever built 1.

Carlos Hathcock is credited with concept of the "50 cal sniper rifle" in the late 60's when he mad a scope mounting bracket to put the 10x Unertl from his M70 on a M2. With this settup he could take out a driver then sink the sanpan carrying supplies at ranges out to 2500 yds.

There are many places I have heard that you can't use the 50bmg against persons but the Army JAG says you can.

taken from wikipedia:

There is a widespread misconception that a number of treaties have banned use of the .50 BMG against human targets, and recruits have been advised by generations of drill instructors to only aim a .50 BMG at an enemy soldier's web gear or other equipment worn on his body. However, the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's office has issued a legal opinion that the .50 BMG and even the Raufoss Mk 211 round are legal for use against enemy personnel.
 
#24 ·
Here's some more good gun-related stuff by the Onion:

Firearm-Safety Tips

January 17, 2001 | Issue 37•01

When operating a firearm, safety is paramount. Here are some tips to reduce the risk of mishaps:

Firearm-Safety Tips


* Instill in your children a healthy fear of guns by drunkenly waving one in their faces whenever you've had a few too many.
* If you shoot yourself in the foot, immediately contact a therapist to help you confront your fear of success.
* Dismantle your gun and melt it into a plowshare.
* Have spouse and children wear blaze orange and shout, "Family coming through!" when moving from room to room in your home.
* Unload gun each night by firing into ceiling, counting each bullet in screamed German.
* Store your gun at least four feet from your liquor cabinet.
* Never let your child play with a gun that is loaded.
* Stress to your children that guns are only for shooting bad people. Make sure they know the difference between good and bad people by having them name examples of each from their daily lives.
* Boil your bullets to prevent transmitting germs to people you shoot.
* Never use a firearm to settle a poker dispute, unless it's the absolute last option.
* Shoot a puppy at point-blank range to illustrate to your children the seriousness of guns.
* When preparing to pistol-whip someone, make sure the safety is on.
* Don't leave bullets on the floor where you can slip on them. That's the real killer.
******************************
UN Taking Guns?

The NRA is telling its members that the United Nations wants to take guns from American citizens on July 4th. What do you think?
Black Man

Ben Billings,
Cable Installer
"Has the NRA been paying attention at all? The UN can't make anybody do anything."
Old Woman

Catherine Weygandt,
Lifeguard
"The NRA is just trying to rile up its members—you know, inject a little enthusiasm into an otherwise placid and contemplative group of people."
Old Man

Tim Benson,
Cake Decorator
"If the UN has a better way to keep my neighbor's dog off my lawn, I'd love to hear it."

****************************************

Guns Are Only Deadly If Used For Their Intended Purpose

By Ted Farner
President, Brothers In Arms U.S.A.
June 12, 2002 | Issue 38•22
Ted Farner
Guns Are Only Deadly If Used For Their Intended Purpose


As the president of Brothers In Arms U.S.A., the nation's third-largest gun-rights organization, I've heard all the arguments made by the anti-gun propagandists. And of the many misguided aspects of their anti-gun rhetoric, the most off-base is this bizarre notion that guns are inherently deadly. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is, guns are only deadly when used for their intended purpose.

Time and time again, the enemies of groups like Brothers In Arms U.S.A. confuse the innocuous phenomenon of guns with the handful of irresponsible people who engage in the deadly practice of gun use. Well, there is a difference, and it's high time the namby-pamby liberals recognize this fact.

Take the letter I got from a California woman whose 15-year-old son was "killed by a gun" while walking to his after-school job. Now, come on. No one is naïve enough to think that an innocent boy died just because a gun was designed, manufactured, and sold. Even before I looked into this woman's story, I knew there had to be more that she wasn't telling me. Sure enough, newspaper clippings and police records revealed that another youth aimed his gun at this boy and pulled the trigger. This action, gun experts will tell you, caused a precision-machined steel hammer to strike the primer of a 9mm cartridge, igniting the smokeless powder within, propelling a 138-grain bullet down the pistol's barrel and into the woman's son. The gun never even came within 10 feet of the kid. The only thing the gun was guilty of was functioning properly.

My point? No child dies just because there is such a thing as guns. They die because one of these guns is used.

In all my years of fighting for the cause of gun rights, not once have I ever come across a case of a gun killing a person. In every instance, the real killer has been the bullets that come out of the guns. So if you're going to insist on pointing fingers, point them at the bullet makers.

Okay, admittedly, there is the occasional pistol-whipping victim who never regains consciousness. But that's a freakish, statistically insignificant aberration that merely proves my point: Only when guns are used as intended are they significantly dangerous to anyone.

But try telling this to all the crybabies suing the gun companies because not everybody in their family is alive. What exactly are you suing them for—making a reliable product? That's a laugh. Somebody should be suing those shoddy import jobs: You'd be lucky to kill a baby with one of them.

No, a gun is not deadly when it sits locked up in a collector's cabinet. Guns don't beam bad thoughts into people's heads that make them fall over dead. There is only one way guns kill, and that's if some misguided weirdo follows the rules of proper gun use and actually aims and fires the gun in accordance with the manufacturer's guidelines.

I feel so strongly about this. As a gun activist and advocate, I feel it is my duty to speak out against this ridiculous fantasy of guns running around on tiny little legs, indiscriminately selecting pedestrians for death.

For all the work Brothers In Arms U.S.A. has done to educate people, there remain all these misconceptions about guns being deadly. Well, so is an atom bomb... if you drop it on a city! But you've still got these hippies whining that the solution is to have no atom bombs whatsoever. Great, just punish everybody because a handful of kooks can't keep their fingers off the button.

It's an old saying, but it's still true: "Guns don't kill people. People kill people." At least, if they've got a gun, they do.
********************************

All hilarious stuff. :)
 
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