Brother gunblogger Triggerfinger (HT: FreedomSight) brings us news of CNN running a story that demonstrates how easy it is to buy a fifty-cal rifle and move it across State lines. To make the story, they had to break a Federal law.
My first impression is that no news organization should be breaking laws just to show how easy lawbreaking can be. Publicola and I agree that the law in question should not be a law in the first place, and that fifty-caliber rifles in private hands are no threat to public order. A first-and-a-half-th impression is that such laws serve only to make everyone just a little guilty, so anyone can have his arm twisted just a little bit by the Man. It's a Randian "consent of the victim" thing.
My second impression is that CNN and its reporters stand absolutely zero chance of having to defend themselves against charges of violating that law. Laws are for the little people.
My third impression is that CNN's reporters and/or producers and/or editors know, subconsciously perhaps, that fifty-caliber rifles are not the real story. The real story, and the activism motivating the fifty-caliber story, is terror and anguish over the fact that a seller of a gun and a buyer of a gun can find each other and arrange to meet face-to-face and make their transaction without the engagement of a licensed dealer. Sensationalize this, spice it up by adding today's Most Dreaded type of gun, and cue the anti-gun lobbyists.
Compared to the fifty-caliber, the antis would get more traction over the SKS (more bodies) except it has one letter or syllable too many. Ayyy-Kayy. Uuuu-zi. Fiff-tee. Mack-tenn. Ess-kay-ess takes just too long to say in a sound bite.
They're not after fifties, they are after private sales.
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