When it comes to guns, boys will be boys -- Ban on export of .50 caliber weapons fails

If someone told you that a weapon capable of piercing a rail car carrying hazardous materials or bringing down a commercial airliner had been purchased by al Qaeda, you would want your government to do something, right? Well, despite these alarming facts, in the U.S. you can still obtain a .50 caliber sniper rifle more easily than a handgun and export of these weapons to countries that are not our allies continues today.

The .50 caliber sniper rifle is in a class by itself. The U.S. Army handbook on urban combat states that .50 caliber sniper rifles are intended for use as anti-materiel weapons, designed to attack bulk fuel tanks and other high-value targets from a distance, using “their ability to shoot through all but the heaviest shielding material.”

If you've ever heard a .50 caliber round in your vicinity, you won't forget it. They are loud, high-powered, deadly and terrifying. If one hit you in the arm, it would knock you down, and maybe tear your arm off. You might bleed to death before anyone could treat it. If it hit you in the trunk, you would almost certainly die.

A few facts:

.50 caliber sniper rifles were designed to attack parked or landing aircraft, armored personnel carriers, rail tank cars, bulk fuel storage, and concrete bunkers. They are powerful enough to puncture armored limousines.

The rifles have effective ranges up to 2,000 yards -- more than a mile.

The .50 caliber ammunition is the largest round available on the civilian market. Highly destructive armor-piercing, incendiary, and explosive rounds are easily available.

It's not something you'd want to sell to terrorists.

But an attempt to ban their export and sale to countries who are not U. S. allies failed in the House last week by a vote of 278-149. The National Rifle Association and their allies opposed the ban, of course, saying there were plenty of laws in effect already. (Ever heard that before?)

The split in the Wisconsin delegation, surprisingly (at least to me) was not along party lines, but by gender. All six men -- Republicans Mark Green, Paul Ryan, F. James Sensenbrenner, and Tom Petri and Democrats David Obey and Ron Kind -- voted against the ban. Voting for the amendment were the two Democratic women in the delegation, Gwen Moore and Tammy Baldwin.