Sniper rifle? Let's be careful here!

[Hokkmike]

Let me be clear about this, in NO WAY do I support this guy, Eric, captured in the woods of NEPA. He must pay for his crime if/when found guilty.

That being said what kind of "sniper rifle" did he carry? This is what the media is touting. We need to be careful not to let the news outlets characterize any of our typically well scoped and accurate bolt action rifles as "sniper rifles" without some objection on our part.

A local gun dealer once warned me that eventually antis will try to frame the common scoped bolt action as a "sniper rifle" for leverage against their sale and use. I thought he was a little extreme but now I am wondering.

It is bad enough that through common reference even some of own now refer to semi-auto military look a-likes as "assault weapons".

Between "sniper rifles", "assault weapons", and "Saturday night specials" there will be nothing left that seems legitimate for us to carry.

What do you think?

[fortysix]

I don't like the characterization either.

The rifle I used in Afghanistan is substantially identical to the one sitting three feet away from me right now, in my cabinet. That one had a better scope and stock and was better accurized, but otherwise, it's the same rifle, same caliber. That's why I bought this one in particular. Is it a sniper rifle because it can reach out and touch a human being from long distance? Probably. But so are any number of rifles I could go buy at Dick's this afternoon, off the shelf.

If all bolt rifles are SNIPERZZ GUN RIFLES, and all semi-automatic rifles with shoulder things that go up are ASSAULT GUNZZ, and all semi-automatic pistols are GLOXXXX PISTOLGUNZ, then all guns are murder weapons just biding their time. I'm just waiting for the kewl word for shotguns?

[DennisH82]

The News managers use special words to sell papers, get folks to watch their exclusive coverage and gain new viewers. They no longer report the news but edit it.

[Sandcut]

I don't like the characterization either.

The rifle I used in Afghanistan is substantially identical to the one sitting three feet away from me right now, in my cabinet. That one had a better scope and stock and was better accurized, but otherwise, it's the same rifle, same caliber. That's why I bought this one in particular. Is it a sniper rifle because it can reach out and touch a human being from long distance? Probably. But so are any number of rifles I could go buy at Dick's this afternoon, off the shelf.

If all bolt rifles are SNIPERZZ GUN RIFLES, and all semi-automatic rifles with shoulder things that go up are ASSAULT GUNZZ, and all semi-automatic pistols are GLOXXXX PISTOLGUNZ, then all guns are murder weapons just biding their time. I'm just waiting for the kewl word for shotguns?

STREETSWEEPERZZ

[jakebrake]

Between "sniper rifles", "assault weapons", and "Saturday night specials" there will be nothing left that seems legitimate for us to carry.

What do you think?

I think that's the idea.

[internet troll]

I'm just waiting for the kewl word for shotguns?

I can hear it now....

these things are scatterguns, when you shoot them bullets fly out all over the place and you can take out a lot of innocent bystanders as well as your target. You don't even have to aim it to hit what you want because it scatters so many bullets. Just pull the trigger and you will take out anything and everything unfortunate enough to be in front of you. Yep, scatterguns are the original weapons of mass destruction.

[pennlineman]

The process of gun control is incremental. The military like semiautomatic will remain high on the list. If they ever achieve success with this I suspect they'll divert their attention back to handguns. Possibly the Saturday night special like before, most likely semiautomatics with a capacity of more than 10.

The buzz word "sniper rifle" should be an attention getter for the Fudd element within the firearms community. It proves the anti's have goals beyond modern sporting arms. Surely, if they get that far semiautomatic and pump action shotguns will be targeted too. A very good reason to be stubborn about giving anything up to these people. They'll never be satisfied until all the guns are gone.

[fortysix]

The process of gun control is incremental. The military like semiautomatic will remain high on the list. If they ever achieve success with this I suspect they'll divert their attention back to handguns. Possibly the Saturday night special like before, most likely semiautomatics with a capacity of more than 10.

The buzz word "sniper rifle" should be an attention getter for the Fudd element within the firearms community. It proves the anti's have goals beyond modern sporting arms. Surely, if they get that far semiautomatic and pump action shotguns will be targeted too. A very good reason to be stubborn about giving anything up to these people. They'll never be satisfied until all the guns are gone.

Reason number 72 why Fudds need to be on our team 100%.

[Qtrborecrazy]

It goes something like this, expert called in, states that a 308 winchester can bring down jets, helicopters, and stop a abrams in its tracks, Chuck Schumer and Bloomburgers wants them banded. Cummo adds them to his Safe Act, Conn. joins in and the rest of the liberals make more excuses. End of story.

[pennlineman]

It goes something like this, expert called in, states that a 308 winchester can bring down jets, helicopters, and stop a abrams in its tracks, Chuck Schumer and Bloomburgers wants them banded. Cummo adds them to his Safe Act, Conn. joins in and the rest of the liberals make more excuses. End of story.

Some countries have a ban on all firearms chambered for military cartridges. Depending on how anal the list is it could include the 12 GA, 9mm, .45 ACP, .45 Colt, .38 Spl, .45-70, .30-40 Krag, .30-06, 7.62X51, .223 not to mention foreign military cartridges like 6.5x55, 8mm, 7.62x54R, the list goes on. Lots of very popular and common cartridges would make that list.