To any fair minded observer, gun ownership, the familiarity with and acceptance of guns, and the embracing of guns by American society, has been in a decades long resurgence.
I spotted an indicator of this reality in a local Wal-Mart a few days ago. I often stop by the Wal-Mart ammunition counter to see what is happening. While .22 ammunition is starting to appear on the shelves of dedicated gun stores, it is absent from Wal-Mart in Yuma, Arizona.
But .50 Browning Machine Gun ammunition is there. The .50 BMG has been gaining popularity with American shooters for decades. It offers long range potential at just about the limit of easily carried ordnance. A few people have hunted with the caliber. It makes most "elephant" guns look anemic in comparison. But it is primarily used for ultra-long range target shooting, and of course, has military potential. It is precisely the sort of thing the Second Amendment was written to protect.
It is tremendously fun to shoot.
I have often thought of purchasing a .50. I have property where it could be shot at range without having to worry about bothering other shooters. I have managed to resist the urge so far.
Seeing .50 BMG in the Wal-Mart ammunition section shows how far the celebration of American gun culture has advanced. It is a speciality product that is hated by disarmists who wish to ban it, even though it is virtually never used in crime. .50 caliber rifles are so large, long, and unwieldy that they would be relatively hard to commit suicide with. I have never heard of it being done with one.
Why do the disarmists hate the .50 BMG? Simple, really. It is a symbol of freedom, a symbol of power in the hands of the citizen. It is refreshing to see it prospering.
Definition of disarmist
©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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As a young child playing with army men, the local military surplus was selling what I think was this, it was large, but it was all stainless steel, a dud. I used to pretend it was a rocket.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find comical about this issue is the disarmers want to remove all assault rifles and their ammunition. Many assault rifles use the 9mm round and the elephant guns are fine for everyone to have. tell me would you rather be struck by a 9mm or a .50 bmg? With a 9mm ball ammo round you normally get a nice round hole in and out. with a .50 bmg you pick up a piece here and a piece there of what is left. Most of the disarmers don't know the difference. What difference does the capacity of a magazine make. You can carry multiple 10 round mags or one thirty round mag and have the same fire power, they really are dunces. How difficult is it to carry more than one weapon? With my small arsenal I can fire 276 rounds without changing mags or reloading anything. I have plenty of reloads and extra mags.
ReplyDeleteThe disarmists, or most of them, don't hate .50 BMG particularly. They just think they can make a case for it being "unnecessary".
ReplyDeleteMe, I decline to argue the point. Until they can propose an Amendment to neutralize the Second Amendment, they have no ground to stand on.
The Constitution has a built-in Amendment process. They can use it, or they can bloody well live with the Constitution plus the Amendments as they exist now.
$22 at Palmetto State Armory.
ReplyDeletehttp://palmettostatearmory.com/index.php/catalog/product/view/id/71/category/83/
I saw some at my Walmart in Corpus Christi, TX. They didn't have a shelf tag.
ReplyDeleteWhat time zone is this in?
ReplyDeleteI posted about ammo at PSA at 4:46AM ET.
Post says 6:46PM, and right now it is 3:30PM ET.
Gun Watch runs on Australian time. It is 17 hours earlier than Mountain Standard Time.
ReplyDeleteI find it easiest to add seven hours, then subtract one day. It is across the International Date Line from the United States.