It’s been some time since we have talked about one of the oldest, most extreme anti-gun organizations, the Violence Policy Center (VPC). Back in 2022, we noted the organization wanted then-president Joe Biden’s administration to reclassify millions of handguns, such as Glocks and others of similar design, as machineguns. The justification was that, since some criminals have illegally converted some of these semi-automatic firearms to fire as fully-automatic (i.e., machineguns), all such firearms should be classified as machineguns.
Even Joe Biden (or whoever was in charge at the time), arguably the most anti-gun president in the history of our great nation, seemed to think that idea was too crazy to consider. Had he or his handlers followed the VPC’s suggestion, it would have turned millions of previously legal handguns into contraband, as machineguns must be taxed and registered under the National Firearms Act (NFA), but federal law also prohibits the general public from transferring or possessing any machineguns not registered by May 19, 1986.
Considering VPC supports banning the possession of all handguns by any civilian, it was not surprising to see the organization look to blame and punish law-abiding gun owners for the actions of a few violent criminals in an effort to advance its gun-ban agenda.
Now VPC is taking a similar approach, but this time the group is going after .50 caliber rifles.
A “similar approach” may be underselling this effort, as it is really the exact same approach; almost as if VPC ran a search-and-replace program, jettisoning “Glock” for “.50 caliber rifle.” Just as with Glocks and similar designed handguns, VPC wants to reclassify .50 caliber rifles under the NFA. They also want to ban the future production and sale of these rifles for civilians.
This comes as part of the recent release of a VPC “study” intended to vilify .50 caliber rifles. But the “study” exposes itself as little more than anti-gun propaganda with its opening statement:
“It is indisputable that the majority of firearms recovered in Mexico, and in particular from Mexican organized criminal organizations, originate in the United States.”
The image VPC is trying to manufacture is that our firearms industry and U.S. gun laws are somehow responsible for the violent mayhem committed south of our border by these “Mexican organized criminal organizations.” This, of course, is exactly what the government of Mexico is claiming in a case that was recently before the U.S. Supreme Court. A broad cross-section of the justices seemed unpersuaded by Mexico’s arguments.
VPC goes so far as to imply that the “U.S. gun market…compels that traffic….” These anti-gun extremists even blame “the gun industry’s design choices,” a charge that sounds like gun makers are basing their developments on what might appeal to criminals, rather than the law-abiding gun owners that actually make up their clientele. These outlandish claims were also pushed by Mexico in its suit.
The “study” is ladened with anti-gun editorializing, like claiming firearms have become “more lethal” with “more killing power.” It uses words invented by anti-gun organizations that are designed to frighten and confuse the general public, like “pocket rockets,” “assault weapons,” and “assault pistols.” (“Assault weapons” is a term the VPC’s own Josh Sugarmann promoted specifically because it was intentionally confusing.)
The “study” also offers anecdotal evidence—often lacking key supportive information or including misinformation—to promote the latest (actually, rehashed) effort to attack a specific type of firearm.
“By far the most powerful and deadly innovation available in the civilian marketplace today is the 50 caliber anti-armor sniper rifle.”
This is the breathtaking transition to the VPC’s specific diatribe against rifles capable of chambering the .50 BMG round. This “innovation” was developed around the turn of the century. Not this century, but the previous one. In other words, the .50 BMG round has been available for civilian use for more than 100 years.
If the fact that these rounds have been around longer than sliced bread isn’t enough to expose the VPC’s lie that this is some sort of new “deadly innovation,” this very report admits the fact that the VPC first started railing against these guns three decades ago, in “the 1990s and early 2000s.” At that time, VPC claimed allowing civilians to buy these firearms “posed a ‘serious threat to American national security.’”
This new “report” seems to admit that the previous “warning” failed to advance the VPC’s anti-gun policy goals, forcing it to “pivot” (their word) from the unwarranted fear over criminals and terrorists using these guns on American soil to the use by “Mexican cartels and other criminals in the Caribbean and Latin American regions.”
Decades after being unable to invent a proper fear-nexus between .50 BMG rifles and terrorists, the “pivot” to “Mexican cartels” (they never expound on “other criminals in the Caribbean and Latin American regions”) should be met with the same lack of success.
In any case, suggestions about the number or percentage of firearms in Mexico traced back to U.S. origins should be regarded with suspicion, given that Mexico’s government is hoping to leverage these accusations into a $10 billion payday from the U.S. firearms industry. ATF’s tracing system, after all, is designed to work only with firearms that have U.S. markings, whether from domestic manufacture or importation. This says nothing, however, about firearms recovered in Mexico that aren’t traced.
Furthermore, a recent article from America’s First Freedom notes that some experts point to cartel firearms as having been “illegally manufactured,” coming from “other parts of Latin America, Eastern Europe, Russia and China,” or even being supplied by “corrupt Mexican military officials.”
The article also states that a 2022 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report highlights that guns used by cartels often come from Central and South America, where old military stockpiles are looted and resold.
But to promote its anti-.50 BMG message, VPC runs through a short list of crimes committed in Mexico involving firearms, including .50 BMG rifles. The crimes were all committed, presumably, by people associated with cartels. Six of the “supporting” documents of these crimes come from Mexican media sources, and using online translation, none of them appear to claim to know how any of the firearms, including the .50 BMG rifles, were acquired.
There are seven “supporting” documents that are in English, with only two that link the acquisition of firearms to sources in the U.S.
One article, from Vice, reads like an anti-gun editorial, with quotes from the anti-gun Giffords Law Center. That article is linked as supporting evidence to a case where a .50 BMG rifle was used in a crime, but where it came from is unknown. The article does, however, mention a separate case where firearms that showed up in Mexico were traced back to an individual in the U.S. who was charged, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to jail and a $9,500.00 fine. This is mentioned after the Giffords representative tried to imply more laws were needed to go after people who illegally traffic firearms.
One of the other sources that does not claim to know how the alleged cartel operatives acquired the firearms in the case to which it is linked is the notorious anti-gun propaganda mill The Trace, funded by notoriously anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg. Interestingly, this article alleges that the .50 BMG rifles “[o]ften” come from the U.S., rather than claiming the U.S. is the primary source. Also of note is that the article admits “many Mexican public authorities are widely known to be corrupt,” implying that a major source of cartel guns are, in fact, Mexican officials.
A third article, from the Daily Mail in the UK, has a likely intentionally misleading headline: “American-made rifle that fires between 400 to 600 bullets per minute seized from gang linked to cartel faction operated by El Chapo’s sons.” That is followed by several bullet-points referring to a .50 caliber rifle that was among the seized guns. But the article then refers to the .50 caliber rifle as being semi-automatic, which would not come even close to the ability to fire at the rate claimed in the headline. The article even has a quote from a security expert who notes the gun “is not a repetition weapon, but rather a precision one.”
Besides these 15 incidents spanning more than a decade-and-a-half, VPC also rehashes some of its earlier attacks on the .50 BMG. The organization has put out at least nine different publications attacking .50 caliber rifles, many of which detail “potential threats” that never seem to materialize. There was the previously mentioned general warning about the widespread use of these rifles by terrorists here in America that never happened.
Then there are specific “threats” they have “studied” about the use of these rifles by terrorists and criminals in America against specific targets, like aircraft and industrial complexes. Again, no examples of such “threats” are presented. If anything, VPC publications read more like a hypothetical training manual for future terrorists.
The latest “study” rehashes the old “warnings” about using .50 caliber rifles against aircraft, then “documents” three incidents in Mexico, spanning about a decade, where it is believed (but not proven) that such rifles were used. One incident involved a helicopter being brought down, another involved an attack on a helicopter that resulted in no injuries reported, and a third involved a “Mexican military light aircraft” that was fired upon, but not, apparently, hit.
It is probably apparent to most reading this article that actually hitting a fixed wing aircraft flying at least hundreds of feet, if not over a thousand, with a semi-automatic rifle—.50 caliber or otherwise—is more a matter of luck than skill. While the .50 BMG has been used as an anti-aircraft round for planes in flight, it is always coupled with full-auto military weaponry.
VPC augments its “report” with a handful of pictures, one of which seems to be a cartel social media post, so the origin of that .50 caliber rifle cannot be determined. The other two photos show caches of arms seized by Mexican authorities. One (apparently from the previously mentioned Daily Mail article) shows what appears to be a single .50 caliber rifle mixed in with dozens of other items, including what looks like a belt-fed machinegun (along with ammo belts), what appear to be several grenades, and at least one firearm equipped with what may be a grenade launcher. Several other long guns are in the picture, some of which could very well be full-auto.
If cartels can acquire belt-fed machineguns, grenades, and grenade launchers—all of which are already either prohibited for civilian use or subject to NFA control—why would VPC think adding .50 caliber rifles to NFA restrictions, as they suggest, stop cartels from acquiring them?
Ultimately, this “study,” like every other VPC “study,” is little more than anti-gun fear mongering designed to advance the organization’s gun-ban agenda. Near the end, where it makes policy recommendations, it is mentioned that .50 caliber rifles should be removed from the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). That should come as no surprise, as VPC is supporting the lawsuit Mexico filed against several American gun manufacturers.
The skepticism with which the Supreme Court greeted that lawsuit should also be exercised by anyone reading VPC’s .50 BMG “report.”
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