Our
mission is to reduce the number of injuries and deaths due to
injuries,
through prevention, improved trauma care, and improved rehabilitation.
"Even at one-and-a-half miles, the .50 caliber rifle crashes into a target with more energy than 'Dirty Harry's' famous .44 magnum at point blank range," Senator Feinstein said. "Today, anyone can get a hold of one of these powerful weapons that has fewer restrictions than handguns."
--Senator
Diane Feinstein, California March 9, 2001
.
.50
Caliber Weapons--Can California Do the Right Thing?
Earlier this year we at the Trauma Foundation asked the
following questions:
- Why do ordinary citizens need guns that can shoot through armored
vehicles, blow up fuel tanks, threaten chemical plants and refineries,
take down helicopters, and destroy radar dishes from over a mile away?
- Why is the United States willing to make sniper rifles used by militaries around the globe readily available as tools for terror with the clear capacity for assassination and assault on society's infrastructure?
While the gun lobby continues to silence the answers to these questions
in the federal arena, prevention advocates in one state--California--have
been able to gain a
forum for the voices of reason. In June, the city of Los Angeles, with
support from its police chief, banned the sale of these deadly weapons.
Contra Costa County, San Francisco, and a number of cities in the East Bay
Public Safety Corridor are considering similar actions.
The California state legislature is considering a bill to prohibit
.50 caliber rifles. California Assembly Bill 50 (Koretz) adds .50 caliber
weapons to the code sections of the Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act
of 1989 and would require them to be registered. In addition, their
manufacture, sale, and possession would be prohibited and any crimes
committed with a .50 caliber rifle would be subject automatically to
felony or misdemeanor status.
Passage of CA AB 50 makes sense and will provide the residents of California
with a measure of protection from easily accessible, deadly, long range
weapons of terror. Once again, California has the opportunity to lead
the nation and enact gun safety legislation that will protect its citizens,
save lives, and prevent devastating tragedies. But if our state
legislature cannot wrest itself free of the gun lobby's influence and do the
right thing, California's cities and counties will. In the 1990s, when the
state legislature refused to take statewide action against junk guns,
California's cities and counties stepped in, banning the manufacture and
sale of these unreliable, poorly made handguns. Eventually, the state
legislature caught up with its more insightful constituency and enacted
state legislation.
Legislation
- Los Angeles passes .50 caliber firearms ban
- Assembly Bill 50 (California)
- California considers .50 caliber ban (WorldNet Daily)
- .50 caliber rifle ban bill
- Lautenberg releases Congressional research service report on terrorist access to weapons
- Senator Feinstein re-introduces measure to curb sales of powerful .50 caliber rifles
- Voting From the Rooftops: How the Gun Industry Armed Osama bin Laden, Other Foreign and Domestic Terrorists, and Common Criminals With 50 Caliber Sniper Rifles (VPC)
- Just Like Bird Hunting, The threat to civilian aviation from . 50 caliber sniper rifles (VPC)
- Sitting ducks - The threat to chemical and refinery industry from .50 caliber sniper rifles (VPC)
- US gun industry targets Europe for sale of .50 caliber sniper rifles (VPC)
- Fifty Caliber Shooter's Association
- Fifty Caliber Shooters Policy Institute
- .50 caliber Bushmaster machine gun
(This page produced with support from the Richard and Rhoda
Goldman Fund.)
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