It is a slippery slope with the ATF or any other regulation making body out there. You give an inch, they take a mile. When HUNTERS AND SHOOTERS are recommending the regulation of firearms and certain cartridges, that is just more ammo for their fight for total control over every gun in existance - or the destruction of those. We know how it works, because of course, the ones who want these regulations voice their opinions more often. We have the reason, they have the microphone.
We all know what the second amendment says, "shall not be infringed", and they say... to a point. So it went from shall not be infringed, to, shall not be infringed
except so and so. And more keeps getting added to that list of exceptions. Do we as shooters really want to add more? I mean, open mouth, insert foot here.
And I think it's funny that you are talking about getting hit with a stray .50bmg, or .338 lapua. ANY bullet from ANY gun is going to hurt, a lot, and you are going to bleed, a lot, and wish it didnt happen, a lot. Instead of talking about the .50 being dangerous, why don't you talk about humans being dangerous? We all know the rules - if you don't have a proper backdrop, and clear field of view, you don't take the shot. .50BMG... .38 special, I don't wanna get hit with either one. Remember the quote? Guns don't kill people, people kill people.
I am going to hunt until the day I die, and I am going to hunt safely, and I am going to hunt within the limits of sanity. So say I want to take a 1200yards shot at a goat, and I take out my .30-06... do you get where this is going? With the BMG, I can then take that shot, and actually hit my target. At that range, it will drop the target, and not destroy the meat. And I can pick a bullet that will be good for hunting, not for metal.
http://froogle.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=46169320OH NO!! That's a .30-06 Armor piercing round, so we aren't allowed to use the 06 for hunting anymore? That might piss a lot of people off. I don't have a .50BMG... yet, and I guarantee, when I get one, I'm going to want to kill an animal with it. I want every gun I own to have at least one animal on it. One of those... gun, memory, worth, sentimental, accomplishment, something type of things, I dunno.
And by the way, you can get a serbu .50BMG carbine running at 17lbs.