CNN Completely Misrepresents Firearms Technology. Again.

I don't often even look at CNN's website any more, on account of it being essentially a tabliod these days. However, this story about .50 BMG rifles being smuggled into Mexico came to my attention and I had to see what sort of nonsense they were peddling.

"One of the 'guns of choice' is a .50-caliber rifle that can fire a slug through both a car door and bulletproof vest from 100 yards away."

CNN characterizes the .50 as something uniquely able to kill police officers because of it's ability to punch through both a car door and a bullet proof vest. However, this is actually nothing special. Every high-powered rifle cartridge is capable of doing this with a standard infantry bullet having a full metal jacket. Every single deer rifle in the United States is capable of doing this.

Want proof? The fine gentlemen over at the Box O' Truth have shot everything imaginable with every type of weapon imaginable and provided pictures for our amusement. Here we can see them shooting an old Buick through the doors with all manner of rifles, weak and strong. Every single bullet goes through the first door and most of them pass out through the other side as well.

As for the bullet proof vests, let me tell you a dirty little secret about the vests worn by police officers; they are only designed to stop low-power pistol rounds. 9mm, .22 LR, that sort of thing. Every single deer rifle in America will punch straight through a police officer's vest.

Want proof? Ok. Let's see what happens when you shoot a 'bullet proof vest' with a standard round of 7.62x39, which is a notoriously weak cartridge having ballistics that are probably about the minimum you would consider hunting deer with. Again, the guys at the Box O' Truth oblige us with the research and photos. In these photos, they are shooting the clay material that is used inside of Level IIIA body armor.

Obviously .50 rifles and ammunition are not the special boogeyman that CNN would like to make out. With regard to the applications that CNN cites, the .50 is no more dangerous than every deer rifle in the world.

It's also fun how CNN points out the following:

"One recent seizure in a Yuma, Arizona, storage locker yielded 42 weapons and hundreds of rounds of .50-caliber bullets already belted to be fed into a machine gun-style weapon."

Heavens! These cartridges are on belts! Through the lack of explanation, the reader is clearly intended to be left with the impression that some type of machine gun is being smuggled into Mexico from the US. When in fact there are no machine guns being manufactured or sold in the United States and such weapons are certainly not being provided to Mexican criminals from the US. The fact that those cartridges are on belts is actually going to be more of a pain than anything else. A lot of military surplus ammunition comes pre-loaded onto those belts, but weapons available to civilians do not use the belts. So each cartridge is going to have to be pulled off of the belt, which will then be discarded.

This bit is an absolute joke:

"Officer Cesar Quitana patrols a dangerous barrio in Juarez, Mexico. He is armed with an M16 assault rifle -- a weapon that would be no match in a gunfight with drug lords."

That makes no sense at all. The AKs coming through the US into Mexico are all actually fake, neutered Kalashnikovs. AK parts that have been assembled onto an after market, semi-auto-only receiver. The ballistics of the AK's 7.62x39 cartridge are no more deadly than that of the .223 Remington cartridges fired by this cop's M16, but the M16 has a major edge in the sense that can fire as a full automatic.

But what about Officer Quitana going up against criminals armed with .50 rifles? All of the .50 BMG rifles in the US that I am aware of are bolt-actions, including the seized Barrett that was used in the demonstration cited. I don't care what cartridge it's chambered for; guys with bolt-action rifles in a prolonged firefight against guys with automatic assault rifles are going to lose. There's a reason why the Springfield is no longer our standard issue battle rifle, even though 30-'06 is obviously more powerful than either .308 or .223. Only a gross mismatch of skill in using firearms would account for a guy with a bolt-action beating out a guy with a full auto.

The .50 BMG's primary application is as a long-range target round. Smaller bullets lack sufficient mass to stay in the air as long and on such a straight course (I am over-simplifying the physics with that in order to avoid boring you). It is favored by snipers and by serious, long-range competitive target shooters. The rifles are also extremely heavy. Over 40 pounds. It's absolutely not what you would ever want to bring to a gunfight. So long as Officer Quitana can hit the broad side of a barn, he is very well equipped to defeat any enemies armed with either .50 rifles or AK variants.

Of course, you can't possibly expect intelligent or informed coverage of firearms issues by any reporter who so badly bungles the very terminology right from the start. The shiny brass thing that you put in a rifle to load it is called a 'cartridge.' The bullet is just one small part of that cartridge. Anyone who refers to a cartridge as a bullet has no idea what he is talking about. These writers, Drew Griffin and John Murgatroyd, are completely out of their depth. It's as if someone was in the habit of calling their computer a 'monitor.' You certainly wouldn't trust a word that they wrote about computer tech issues. The same thing is true here.