REALLY BIG GUNS: EVEN BIGGER LIES - Violence Policy Center

trained terrorist). But here is what Ronnie G. Barrett—credited by many as the
inventor of the 50 caliber anti-armor sniper rifle and holder of several patents—testified
under oath as an expert witness in a 1999 federal criminal trial about the capability of
the “average shooter” to hit a variety of targets with the Barrett M82A1 at a range of
1,000 yards:
Q. And if you wanted to hit an object that was approximately five or
six feet in vertical height and you were using the magazine that had the
ten rounds, approximately how many of those rounds, for an average
shooter, would hit the target?
A. At what distance?
Q. Say a thousand yards.
....[Defense objection and court’s overruling omitted.]
THE WITNESS: An average shooter, or someone that is at least a
rifleman or a shooter, would probably be able to put eight out of ten
rounds on a five-foot by 30-inch at a thousand meters.
BY MR. GLICK:
Q. Eight out of ten. What if the object was much larger? Say it was
a car. How many of those?
A. You could put them all on there.
Q. What about if it was the size of an airplane?
A. All. 45
In short, according to the sworn testimony of expert witness Barrett, at 1,000
meters (1,094 yards) an “average shooter” can put eight out of 10 rounds into a
human-sized (five-foot by 30 inch) target, and all 10 rounds into an automobile or
airplane.
FCI has also raised an obscurant quibble regarding the statement of fact in “Just
Like Bird Hunting” that “a Canadian sniper claimed a world record hit on a Taliban
fighter at a range of “2,430 meters (2,657 yards)—over a mile and a half.”
According to FCI: That shot “involved a team of elite military snipers who had access
to laser rangefinders, GPS satellite systems and precision military-grade telescopes.” 46
Two answers dispose of this simplistic quibble.
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