REALLY BIG GUNS: EVEN BIGGER LIES - Violence Policy Center

targets to be destroyed or disabled by a single soldier. Armored
personnel carriers, radar dishes, communications vehicles, aircraft and
area denial submunitions are all vulnerable to the quick strike capability
of the Barrett 82A1. With decisive force and without the need for the
manpower and expense of mortar or rocket crews, forces can engage the
opposition at distances far beyond the range of small arms fire....The
advantages are obvious when you consider that many of the same
targets for rocket and mortar fire can be neutralized with M33 ball, API
M8 or Multipurpose ammunition. 90
Another manufacturer, Watson’s Weapons, posted on its Internet web site the
following photographs, graphically illustrating the armor-piercing power of the 50
caliber anti-armor sniper rifle.
This image from the Internet web site of Watson’s Weapons depicts one-inch steel plate
shot with a .50BMG armor-piercing round.
Unfortunately, FCI’s vicious campaign of distortion is aided by the tendency of
lay persons and some news outlets to use the generic term “tank” for any armored
vehicle. By seizing on such inadvertent misuse of military jargon, FCI and its ilk seek
to obscure the real problem—while the 50 caliber anti-armor’s power is a good thing
in the hands of the U.S. military on the battlefield, it is dangerously irresponsible to
allow the unrestricted sale of the same power on the civilian market.
Moreover, the point is not that terrorists are likely to be engaging main battle
tanks on the streets of America, but that many sensitive civilian targets, including
limousines and other vehicles transporting key government officials, business
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