Contender
04-22-2004, 05:38 PM
.50-caliber gun ban ill-advised
First published: Thursday, April 22, 2004
Most sportsmen I know don't see the need to get worked up over New York State Assembly legislation that would ban the sale and ownership of a .50-caliber gun.
Understandably, since the .50 cal that comes to mind these days is the modern 50-pound, single-shot sniper's rifle our military uses on targets a mile away. Costing anywhere between $2,000 and $11,000, with ammo as hard to find as a unicorn's toenail, the .50 cal is an exotic.
Although there are high-end target shooting competitions for such guns, and they are legitimate, legal functions undeserving of governmental interference.
But I'm also here to sound an alarm for the average New York state hunter. He or she has plenty to be concerned about with Assembly bill 7039. Worried would be too strong a word, but concerned is not.
By attempting to ban a caliber and not specific weapons, the prohibition may apply to guns near and dear to your heart after all, not just the exotics.
Keep in mind that this .50-caliber ban bill was goofy to begin with, arising from the Assembly's hasty need to counter various and equally idiotic anti-terrorism bills from Gov. Pataki and the State Senate.
Assemblywoman Patricia Eddington from Patchogue, Long Island, came up with the idea. She's convinced terrorists want to carry around a 50-pound, single-shot weapon, and Speaker Sheldon Silver has even gone so far as to assert such a gun could bring down an airliner. I have found no credible evidence in support.
"Fifty-caliber guns have no legitimate purpose, and to keep them legal is supporting keeping them legal for terrorists and others," Silver told the Associated Press. This conjures the mind-boggling image of terrorists and their ilk, whatever their ilk might be, lining up at a gun shop, waiting for their Brady checks, in order to purchase a sniper gun.
Please. After speaking with Eddington I am convinced she is sincere and straight with this legislation. She was 17 years a social worker in public schools, and her motivation comes from awful discussions about kids bringing guns to school. But it is also clear to me she knows little about guns and calibers.
Although she does insist she is not anti-hunting at all. She told me her brother-in-law in Poughkeepsie deer hunts, and that's fine with her. She also said she learned that blackpowder .50-caliber guns are something different from what she has in mind, and that an amendment in her bill now excludes blackpowder guns.
But Tom King, director for the New York State Pistol and Rifle Association, one of several gun groups rightly opposed to this bill, brings up an alarming point. At the same time Assembly staffers were briefed on why the legislation should exclude blackpowder guns, it was pointed out that all shotguns of a larger bore than a .410 might be at risk under the ban.
Yet the Assembly amended the bill to exclude blackpowder guns, but not your slug-shooting 12-, 16-, or 20-gauge shotgun. Since we have deer-hunting counties like Albany and Schoharie that allow shotguns but not rifles for deer hunting, this cuts to the bull's-eye of our interests.
"I think we should be scared about that," cautions King, and he's right.
Is it intentional or simply ineptly drawn? In the end, does it matter? There's no reason to get paranoid over this, but King does remind us that going all the way back to various attempts at banning assault weapons, there's been a fever to ban semi-automatic shotguns as well. Why is mystifying, but there it is.
So why does this not rise to worry status for gunning sportsmen? Because the legislation is a one-house bill for now, and sources in the State Senate tell me it is apt to stay that way. However, now would be the ideal time to contact your senator and share those concerns.
Fred LeBrun's outdoors column is published Thursdays. To reach him, call 454-5453.
Albany Times-Union
First published: Thursday, April 22, 2004
Most sportsmen I know don't see the need to get worked up over New York State Assembly legislation that would ban the sale and ownership of a .50-caliber gun.
Understandably, since the .50 cal that comes to mind these days is the modern 50-pound, single-shot sniper's rifle our military uses on targets a mile away. Costing anywhere between $2,000 and $11,000, with ammo as hard to find as a unicorn's toenail, the .50 cal is an exotic.
Although there are high-end target shooting competitions for such guns, and they are legitimate, legal functions undeserving of governmental interference.
But I'm also here to sound an alarm for the average New York state hunter. He or she has plenty to be concerned about with Assembly bill 7039. Worried would be too strong a word, but concerned is not.
By attempting to ban a caliber and not specific weapons, the prohibition may apply to guns near and dear to your heart after all, not just the exotics.
Keep in mind that this .50-caliber ban bill was goofy to begin with, arising from the Assembly's hasty need to counter various and equally idiotic anti-terrorism bills from Gov. Pataki and the State Senate.
Assemblywoman Patricia Eddington from Patchogue, Long Island, came up with the idea. She's convinced terrorists want to carry around a 50-pound, single-shot weapon, and Speaker Sheldon Silver has even gone so far as to assert such a gun could bring down an airliner. I have found no credible evidence in support.
"Fifty-caliber guns have no legitimate purpose, and to keep them legal is supporting keeping them legal for terrorists and others," Silver told the Associated Press. This conjures the mind-boggling image of terrorists and their ilk, whatever their ilk might be, lining up at a gun shop, waiting for their Brady checks, in order to purchase a sniper gun.
Please. After speaking with Eddington I am convinced she is sincere and straight with this legislation. She was 17 years a social worker in public schools, and her motivation comes from awful discussions about kids bringing guns to school. But it is also clear to me she knows little about guns and calibers.
Although she does insist she is not anti-hunting at all. She told me her brother-in-law in Poughkeepsie deer hunts, and that's fine with her. She also said she learned that blackpowder .50-caliber guns are something different from what she has in mind, and that an amendment in her bill now excludes blackpowder guns.
But Tom King, director for the New York State Pistol and Rifle Association, one of several gun groups rightly opposed to this bill, brings up an alarming point. At the same time Assembly staffers were briefed on why the legislation should exclude blackpowder guns, it was pointed out that all shotguns of a larger bore than a .410 might be at risk under the ban.
Yet the Assembly amended the bill to exclude blackpowder guns, but not your slug-shooting 12-, 16-, or 20-gauge shotgun. Since we have deer-hunting counties like Albany and Schoharie that allow shotguns but not rifles for deer hunting, this cuts to the bull's-eye of our interests.
"I think we should be scared about that," cautions King, and he's right.
Is it intentional or simply ineptly drawn? In the end, does it matter? There's no reason to get paranoid over this, but King does remind us that going all the way back to various attempts at banning assault weapons, there's been a fever to ban semi-automatic shotguns as well. Why is mystifying, but there it is.
So why does this not rise to worry status for gunning sportsmen? Because the legislation is a one-house bill for now, and sources in the State Senate tell me it is apt to stay that way. However, now would be the ideal time to contact your senator and share those concerns.
Fred LeBrun's outdoors column is published Thursdays. To reach him, call 454-5453.
Albany Times-Union