Report on .50-Caliber Firearms Seen As Encouraging Terrorists -- GOPUSA

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Report on .50-Caliber Firearms Seen As Encouraging Terrorists
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Morning Editor
February 23, 2005

(CNSNews.com) -- A Second Amendment group is criticizing CNN for airing a report that explains how .50-caliber rifles might be misused used by terrorists.

The Feb. 17 report also provided a "'road map' on how to obtain one of the firearms, said the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

"The CNN report comes awfully close to being an attempt by a news organization to encourage an incident, just so CNN can later say 'We warned you,'" said Joe Waldron, CCRKBA's executive director.

CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said Griffin's CNN report was "yet another media attempt to demonize a particular firearm," which has both military and sporting uses.

Although Griffin acknowledged that the .50-caliber firearm has "really never been used domestically in a criminal event," he went on to demonstrate how such a gun might pierce airplanes and armored cars.

In the first sentence of his report, Griffin noted that buying "this huge gun" is easy -- "you just need to go to your computer and click on one of the biggest classified gun sites..."

Griffin also said CNN deliberately bypassed federally licensed firearms dealers, who would have required a background check: "We are trying to find one (a .50 caliber) that's being sold by just a private citizen," which, he noted, "is perfectly legal in dozens of states."

Griffin said he paid $2,500 for the gun, and he said finding armor-piercing ammunition was "as easy as ordering flowers."

The CNN report noted that some gun control advocates want the federal government to ban the .50-caliber firearm, which Griffin described as "very heavy, not easy to maneuver."

Griffin later admitted that although a .50-caliber armor-piercing round might cripple an airliner, it "probably" would not bring it down.

In an on-camera exchange with anchor Paula Zahn, Griffin also admitted, "I'm not a gun person. I've never bought a gun before in my life. And to see how easy this was to do and how easy it was, even easier, to get these armor-piercing bullets, it was incredible."

But CCRKBA called it incredible that CNN would offer such a show-and-tell.

"Essentially, CNN's Griffin and anchor Paula Zahn have literally told would-be terrorists, 'See what you might do with one of these firearms'?" Gottlieb said.. "Naturally, if such an incident occurs, CNN will quickly blame everyone but themselves. That's not simply disingenuous, it's despicable."

CCRKBA says CNN isn't the only news agency guilty of giving ideas to lunatics: "CBS's '60 Minutes' did the same thing, and they're all hoping to one day harvest a bumper crop of sensational stories about some airplane that comes under fire."

"CNN ought to be ashamed," Waldron said, "but it's doubtful they know the definition of that word."

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms describes its mission as "preserving firearms freedoms through active lobbying of elected officials and grass-roots organization of gun rights activists in local communities throughout the United States."