New Jersey Introduces Bill To Ban Fifty Caliber Target Rifles:
Well, we were wondering when the balloon would go up and now it has. Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey, supported by Ceasefire NJ announced the introduction of legislation to ban the 50 caliber target rifle in that state. Bryan Miller, executive director of Ceasefire NJ said, "We can wait for the first time mayhem occurs in our country before we ban civilian sales of these weapons, but then dozens of people will likely have died." Gregory Paw, director of the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice, endorsed the legislation with the comment, "The only thing that comes out of this weapon is evil."
Well how does that make all you law abiding members of the Fifty Caliber Shooters Association feel? If you're like me, comments like that from law enforcement officials kind of make me sick. This, from a state where the .50 caliber target rifle has never been used in a crime. Sounds like California all over again.
We have all been wondering how long it would take the democrats to get back to their antigun agenda? With their announcement last week of legislation to re-introduce the Assault Weapons Ban and this week a ban on the 50 BMG in NJ they have made it crystal clear what law abiding gun owners are up against..
It was bad enough when California state legislators began believing Hollywood's special effects and banned a match/competition rifle as "too dangerous"!! Now it seems that blind panic has spread to some New Jersey legislators also. This week they submitted legislation (S1498/A3998) to ban the .50 caliber in their state too.
While the crime rate hasn't been changed one bit since California enacted their law, New Jersey hopes to build on the stellar performance of that "goose egg" by enacting a "goose egg" of their own.
Our readers in New Jersey should familiarize themselves with the proposed legislation and stand-by for further developments as the Fifty Caliber Institute closely monitors the progress of these bills. We'll be sure to give you as much notice as possible when action on your part is due. We are working closely with the NJ State Rifle & Pistol Association and will keep you advised. For additional information on the legislation you can check here:
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/BillsByNumber.asp FCI Response to AP News Story About NJ .50 Cal Ban:
FBI SUPPORTS FCI POSITION - NO "RIFLE THREAT"
When you're right, you're right. But when the nation's most prestigious law enforcement agency conducts a thorough study and says you are dead-on right, well that's something to crow about.
Just two weeks ago the Federal Bureau of Investigation released an unclassified study on the so-called "sniper threat" alleged by a small, vocal anti-gun lobby. Exhaustively researched, the report drew on data not only from the FBI, but from the Department of Defense as well as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). Their conclusion: there is no credible evidence suggesting that any terrorist organization is using, or even plans to use, sniper tactics with ANY form of rifle within the USA.
With remarkable clarity and perspective the FBI examined the rare historic incidents in which rifles have been used in criminal attacks dating back to the assassination of JFK. They correctly noted that almost exclusively these have been cheap, often small caliber weapons fired at extremely close range. Nowhere in the nearly ninety years of civilian ownership of .50 caliber rifles has there been anything even remotely resembling the science-fiction scenarios thrown up by small special interest groups plodding forward on a steadfast anti-gun agenda.
It is thus perhaps grossly inopportune timing on the part of one of these groups, Ceasefire NJ, to run their latest scam-the-taxpayer boondoggles up the flagpole of New Jersey immediately after the FBI categorically refutes their entire premise. There is no doubt in terms of credibility, as to who might be the more believable party. On one hand you have a small lobbyist-for-hire group with no demonstrable expertise at all on the subject of firearms; while on the other you have the joint and uniform position of the FBI, BATFE and the Department of Defense all joining earlier statements made by the Transportation Safety Administration and the Department of Homeland Security that they were aware of what was being said about the .50cal rifle but "we don't consider it a realistic threat."
These law enforcement agencies, whose ranks include experts with world-class police and military marksmanship skills and training, fully understand what the befuddled flock of Ceasefire advocates cannot begin to grasp -- that rifles, no matter what the caliber, live here in the real world and not in the land of political fantasy.
Claims made by organizations in the past about .50 caliber rifles have depicted them as being able to blow up tanks and knock railroad cars from their tracks when not shooting through multiple buildings or hitting targets from many miles away. No, we're not kidding - those are just a few of the outlandish abilities put forth with a straight face by the salesmen of bad legislation. Several politicians have jumped aboard the bandwagon of VPC and other anti-gun organizations and have literally made fools of themselves on camera reciting rhetoric that defies even an elementary grasp of physics.
As the battle has been waged in the public forum, the Fifty Caliber Institute has answered rhetoric with expertise and has challenged raw anecdote with documented tests. For the past eight years FCI has proven the claims of groups like Ceasefire NJ and the Violence Police Center as the shameless lies they are. But as long as these groups can wrangle a buck at the expense of the taxpayer, they will continue to shamelessly ply their wares on an unsuspecting public in the hopes that FCI will not be around. That will not happen. We're in the fight and we are here to stay.
Support for lunatic fringe gun bans has not proven to be a political asset in recent years. Taxpayers are sick and tired of pointless ban laws drummed up on ill-conceived standards which, in the end, are admitted by their very authors to be of no measurable impact. As a nation we spent over two BILLION dollars on the so-called "assault weapon ban" only to hear the Justice Department conclude both midway and at the end of the program that they could see no effect whatsoever caused by the legislation. Two billion dollars tossed out the window because groups like Ceasefire NJ waved their arms yelling "the sky is falling" to members of Congress who were wiling to listen. We think it is time Congress began to listen to us. Remember, it is always our money that is wasted by pie-in-the-sky bans based on politics instead of reality.
It is time now for the legislators of New Jersey to decide if they will listen to the uniform conclusion of the agencies directly responsible for the safety of our country, groups dealing with terrorist threats day in and day out, or if they will side with a small handful of shills hawking the "next great threat" in a manner that would make P.T. Barnum proud. Perhaps they should realize that when they waste our money today we take note, we demand answers, and we remember at the polls.
The Fifty Caliber Institute remains dedicated to the task of keeping real facts and scientific evidence at the forefront of the gun ban debate. It remains our goal to see that legislators know the whole truth from the top experts in the world. There is nothing to suggest that rifles of any sort are the "terrorist weapon of tomorrow" and legislation based on such a claim is nothing but a sham.
For a copy of the FBI report referred to in this article please go to:
http://www.fiftycal.org/content/SniperTacticsandEffectsontheUSHomeland.pdf John Burtt, Chmn
Fifty Caliber Institute
www.fiftycal.org
