Too much firepower

Mark Serbu is the kind of entrepreneur that politicians love to tout as the backbone of the American economy. And maybe he is, though his product hardly evokes local pride. Serbu's Tampa company makes .50-caliber sniper rifles that are powerful enough to pierce armor plating from 10 football fields away.

The civilian rifle is legal, Serbu points out, and "is the biggest, baddest gun you can buy without a special license. It's like having control of lightning in your hand."

In the wrong hands that's not a good thing, which is why even the Terminator - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - banned the .50-caliber rifle in his state. That only helped Serbu's sales, as California residents swamped his company with orders to beat the deadline - a testament to the ineffectiveness of piecemeal gun control.

Gun enthusiasts say the rifles are used for target shooting, and are too big at 4 feet long and 22 pounds to be a criminal's weapon of choice. Research done by the Government Accountability Office suggests otherwise.

Although the 1999 report included none of Serbu's guns, the GAO discovered "examples of criminal misuse of the .50-caliber rifle with a nexus to terrorism, outlaw motorcycle gangs, international and domestic drug trafficking and violent crime." Obviously, a weapon with such lethal potential should be a concern.

We don't begrudge Serbu his success. But how would he or Tampa Bay residents feel if a weapon used to do great harm was produced here? Gun advocates usually answer such questions with the Sept. 11 example, saying those terrorists hijacked airplanes with box cutters, which weren't banned.

Yes, even tools can be used as weapons. But a gun as powerful as the .50-caliber rifle, which could possibly bring down an airplane or ignite a chemical storage tank from afar, is a threat this nation cannot ignore.

[Last modified May 7, 2005, 01:02:18]