Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
There's nowhere you can hide.
A couple of months ago, I was shooting the shit with one of the guys at my favorite local gun shop. He's ex-military, more right-wing than I am (by a goodly amount), but not a nut and he knows guns. I've always been able to rely on him for solid information and advice, and found his opinions and information about guns to jibe with my own knowledge and experience.
Somehow the conversation turned to .50 caliber weapons. I don't own one, and don't have any desire to own one (though I do have a .54 flintlock). Some people do like them for target-shooting long distances, but those are heavy (upwards of a hundred pounds) and usually just a single shot, and priced well into four digits. The military versions are usually mounted on some kind of vehicle, to move the things and help control the recoil of the gun. Anyway, in the discussion about the .50 caliber military weapons, the gun-shop guy said "Go downtown. Look around. There is nowhere you can hide - not behind any car, not in any building - where a .50 cal can't reach you. That's why they're perfect for the military."
Now, guess where they're being deployed. Yup, right here in the US, by a Sheriff's Department. To let the bad guys know that the department is 'serious'. Via Reason:
The Richland County, South Carolina Sheriff's Department (that's them above) just obtained an armored personnel carrier, complete with a belt-fed, .50-cal turreted machine gun. Sheriff Leon Lott has charmingly named the vehicle "The Peacemaker," and insists that using a caliber of ammunition that even the U.S. military is reluctant to use against human targets (it's generally reserved for use against armored vehicles) will "save lives."
Can we call this overkill, yet? Is there any weapon people like Sheriff Lott would consider inappropriate for use against American citizens?
My guess would be "no," in answer to that question.
Jim Downey
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Completely Necessary
OK, look. I grew up in Columbia, SC and I can tell you that this is a completely necessary step down in hostilities.
The semi-annual round-up of prostitutes on Two Notch Road has in recent years become an epic bloodbath with high numbers of casualties on both sides. (To say nothing of "civilian" losses. Though it is doubtful that anyone near the Two Notch DMZ can truly be called a civilian, but the bleeding heart brigade always whines about all the toddler corpses.)
Likewise it will be a welcome sight for all parties involved in those late night domestic disputes that so often end in hostage situations or suicide bombings.
And jaywalkers beware!
That the Richland County Sheriff's Department is willing to be the first to relinquish the use of nerve gas, biological agents, and their impressive tactical nuclear arsenal is a welcome sign of government high-mindedness. Kudos to them!
Yea, but still...
...those .50 cals are bad-ass. I got to shoot them from the commander's cupola of M-60 tanks and an M-113 (but only on a target range.) We were told that, in battle, we weren't allowed to shoot them at personnel, so we had to make sure we aimed for the enemies canteens and rifles. Unfortunately, by the time I was in actual battle, I was in an M-577, and all we had was an M60 machine gun. A mere pop gun in comparison.
Seriously, I can't think of any reasonable use for these thing by a civilian police force. If the criminals have the kind of armory that makes this much fire-power necessary, it's beyond anything a hick sheriff and Barney Fife are capable of handling, .50 cal or not.
Rob Miles
--
There are only 10 types of people in the world;
those who understand binary and those who don't.
1984
Shouldn't he be fired, for even thinking of brandishing a "V-hickle" like that in a community? Is it really that bad where he lives?
Hello 1984 anyone...big brother is watching you!
I like large guns too but not for shooting citizens.
Smaller caliber weapons, intelligently wielded, are usually more effective.
Anyone who pronounces "vee-(schwa)-cle" as "vee-HICK-cal" is immediately suspect.
And anyone who mounts a fifty cal on a chassis with wheels in order to "save lives" is similarly suspect. Doubly.
E Pluribus Unum
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