"Super Guns" Can Down Helicopters, Defeat Armored Limousines, Destroy
Aircraft at Terminals, Ignite Fuel Tanks, All From 1,800 yards
Violence Policy Center Report Documents Sale, Details Terror Potential
WASHINGTON, DC� The U.S. gun industry sold at least twenty-five 50 caliber
sniper rifles to Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden's terror network, a study released
by the Violence Policy Center (VPC) today reports. The study, Voting
From the Rooftops, details the tremendous power of the Barrett
M82A1 50 caliber sniper rifles� which U.S. Marines used in the Gulf War
to knock out Iraqi armored vehicles from 1,750 yards away�and the gun's
potential use to commit terror acts that could cause enormous casualties.
The Barrett sniper rifle has spawned a bourgeoning market for these types
of weapons that are becoming cheaper, lighter and more widely available.
There are known to be at least fifteen 50 caliber sniper rifle manufacturers�nearly
double the number of companies that were manufacturing and marketing 50
calibers to civilians in1999.
"We can be shocked, but not surprised that the gun industry would sell
these dangerous military weapons to Al Qaeda," said the study's author,
Tom Diaz, VPC's senior policy analyst. "These 50 caliber sniper rifles
are ideal tools for terror and assassination."
Voting from the Rooftops
explains the enormous range of 50 caliber sniper rifles, the explosive
power of special armor-piercing and armor-piercing incendiary ammunition
easily available in the United States, and why this war-fighting power
in the hands of Al Qaeda and other terrorists creates a grave threat to
all Americans. Among the dangers the study details are:
