Why Would Anyone Need a .50 Caliber Incendiary?

One of the weirder features of the Georgia bill -- the one that convinces me it was probably written by the VPC, and is just being farmed out to legislators around the country -- is its focus on '.50 caliber incendiary' rifles. That's a strange thing to be concerned about, given that the things have been used in almost no crimes. VPC has an extensive list of cases "involving" .50 cal rifles, but they're almost all cases in which the involvement is limited to the police having seized one pursuant to another investigation. There are only four cases in twenty years in which one may have been fired in a crime, and some of those are dodgy (e.g., the Branch Davidian case, in which suspiciously little evidence survived -- here's a Democratic Underground forum in which DU gun control advocates are convinced by the evidence that the rifles may not have existed).

Still, you can -- as they might well like to do -- turn the question around. OK, so maybe they're not a pressing threat in our city streets, but they are very powerful and could conceivably be used to do harm. Why would you need one?

FPS Russia is here to help you out.



That's a machinegun, of course, but a rifle would work better -- you could place your shots with care, so that very little of the firewood was destroyed. I suddenly realize how much this would streamline my firewood production cycle.  Too, it would allow me to drop the tree from an adequate distance that I could eliminate the risk of death from having the tree fall on me.  It's a lifesaving implement!

I've dropped trees that hung up while falling with a .30-30 before, but this is a whole new concept!

11 comments:

Ymar Sakar said...

Without the internet, people would be left with just their local imagination and C3 network.

It is a new world, but it is also a shadow or overlay on top of the old world.

Ymar Sakar said...

I personally wonder why Leftists need a head attached to their body. I wonder indeed, whenever I see one of them walking around like a zombie.

The jihadists use military length combat knives to saw through the spinal column, the upper column connected to the brain. So inefficient.

E Hines said...

Why Would Anyone Need a .50 Caliber Incendiary?

You asked, and repeated in the body. The answer is, the question is irrelevant. The government has no legitimate interest in why I want a firearm or any particular ammunition. None.

Full stop.

...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. Nothing in there that says, unless government demurs.

My neighbors might have an interest. No government does.

Eric Hines

Grim said...

Yeah, I'm familiar with the canonical answer.

Grim said...

Unfortunately, I'm probably not going to be able to put this beautiful plan into action -- these things are really expensive. That is, of course, another reason they are almost never used by criminals.

(Still... cheaper than a hospital visit for having been crushed by a tree! And way more convenient.)

E Hines said...

The answer is only canonical in a practical sense when we keep on it and enforce it.

We used to make our own black powder and mortar bombs when I was in high school. Maybe you could blow a tree down from a safe distance.

Eric Hines

Grim said...

The wife has occasionally suggested that course of action, but (a) I am not sure it's legal, and (b) this would be much more fun.

Ymar Sakar said...

Having home made explosives could be dangerous even in Georgia culture.

But people do fill up their own brass so to speak, and it has to use some kind of smokeless powder. Although black powder should be good enough by itself. That's probably too close to the "fertilizer" stuff though.

E Hines said...

I am not sure it's legal

It's tough to bootleg whiskey, anymore. So, bootleg black powder. Besides, if a tree falls in the forest, and a government man doesn't hear it, did the tree fall?

Eric Hines

raven said...

Your wife suggested logging with powder? There are no words to describe the awesomeness of this!
I did once cut a tree down with a 12 gauge and slugs, it had blown over and gotten wedged, had a terrible spring to it, likely to spring back and maim a man as soon as the saw bit into it.

Texan99 said...

Why would you NOT need this wonderful thing? It looks like a complete blast.