How easy would it be for a terrorist to purchase a .50-caliber sniper rifle and
ammunition capable of bringing down a passenger jetliner?

Barrett Model 82A1

Following are transcripts of three tape-recorded conversations between undercover investigators from the Office of Special Investigations at the U.S. General Accounting Office and three gun dealers in Nebraska, Alaska, and Oregon. The calls were part of an investigation by the House Committee on Government Reform into the availability of .50-caliber sniper rifles and armor-piercing ammunition. More infomration on this investigation can be found at the Committee on Governement Reform Office Website

Barrett Manufacturing, the leading maker of these guns, calls them “heavy firepower for light infantry.” It boasts that the rifles “allow sophisticated targets to be destroyed or disabled by a single soldier. Armored personnel carriers, radar dishes, communications vehicles, aircraft… are all vulnerable to the quick strike capability of the Barrett 82A1.” To view an animated video of the .50-caliber threat, go to www.50CaliberTerror.com.

Nebraska

Agent: Okay, let me ask you this now. This ammo will go through, say, metal, won’t it?

Dealer: Uh, yeah, it’ll go through metal. Yeah, it’s incendiary.

Agent: Right, like, so is it, is it spec’d to go through like tank armor, or . . .

Dealer: I really don’t know. Whatever the 50 BMG is . . .

Agent: Okay. Do you think it would go through, like, an armored limousine?

Dealer: Oh . . . well . . . I think it would. (laughing)

Agent: How ‘bout like bullet-proof glass?

Dealer: Oh, yeah, it’ll go through that.

Agent: Even if it’s ballistic glass, it’ll still go through?

Dealer: Right.

Agent: With the first round, probably?

Dealer: Right.

Agent: Okay. And so you’re saying it’s two hundred and forty dollars for a hundred.

Dealer: Uh, huh.

Agent: Okay. Now, I live on the East Coast, can you send that to me?

Dealer: Uh, yeah, we ship it to the East Coast, whereabouts do you live?

Agent: Uh, I live in Virginia . . .

Dealer: Okay.

Agent: But I’d like it shipped to DC.

Dealer: Okay.

Agent: And how can I go about doing that?

Dealer: Uh, I’ll put her on and she can give you all the information.

AUDIO CLIP TWO

(Nebraska - cont.)

Agent: Okay. Do you know though, sir, if I got the sniper round instead of the API, would that still go through ballistic glass?

Dealer: Uh, yeah. That will still go through—oh, I don’t know—I don’t think we’ve tested on ballistic glass. It’ll go through three inch aircraft window.

Agent: Okay. But then, the—you know, the first round, would probably, the bullet would probably veer off though, would it not?

Dealer: Uh, I think—depending, I’ve never tested it, but I’m pretty sure’s anything out of that 50 gun will shoot through ballistic glass.

Agent: Okay, but say an armored limousine, though. These sniper rounds may not go through an armored limousine, or . . . ?

Dealer: Uh, we’ve never tested it on that. Because it is a brass, you know what I am saying?

Agent: Uh, huh.

Dealer: It doesn’t got a steel penetrator inside of it. The bullet itself is solid brass.

Agent: Okay. Alright, well, what is the price for these sniper rounds?

Dealer: Uh, the sniper rounds are four dollars a round by the hundred or fifty a round by ten-round.

Agent: Oh, so they’re more than the API?

Dealer: Yeah, oh yeah. These here are, the bullet alone in that cost like a dollar seventy.

Agent: Okay. Well, I think I’m better off with API because I’m going to be using this against, um, you know, something with an armored limousine and something with ballistic glass, and I just want to make sure I’m going to be able to penetrate. I don’t want to take the risk of getting the sniper round. Um, so. Alright, so put me on with your assistant there and maybe I can figure out how I can get this shipped to me.

Dealer: Okay, hold on.

Alaska

Dealer: I have slaprounds, which are armor-piercing . . . slaprounds are special lubricated armor-piercing, they are a steel penetrating tip—.30 caliber tip inside of a .50 caliber— like an old accelerator that Remington used to do.

Agent: Right.

Dealer: And they’ll go through six inches of steel up to a 45 degree angle at a thousand yards. Agent: Okay, that’s a slapround, I’ve heard of that, I’ve seen some stories about that. How much is that a round?

Dealer: Those are seven for standard 8 slap and the slap trace is 8.

Agent: Okay, so the slap is 7 and the slap trace is 8.

Dealer: Hm mmm.

Agent: Okay. Um, and so you say they’ll go up through six inches of steel—they’ll penetrate . . .

Dealer: Hm mmm.

Agent: . . . at a thousand yards?

Dealer: At a 45 degree angle at a thousand yards.

Agent: Okay. So for sure then they’d go through an armored limousine?

Dealer: Oh, yeah. (laughter)

Agent: No question about that, right?

Dealer: No question, fifty will go through any of it.

Agent: Okay. Even if I don’t get the API, it still would go through an armored limousine?

Dealer: Uh, huh. The ball will.

Agent: Are you sure about that?

Dealer: Oh, yeah. We’ve played with stuff. I go through four inches, five inches of steel up here easy.

Agent: Wow.

[ BREAK ]

Agent: Well, you were asking what I want this API ammunition for . . .

Dealer: I don’t . . . Hey, I don’t ask anybody . . .

Agent: Yeah, because, I mean, it’s very important for me to get this, because there’s going to be some day when I am going to need this ammunition, because I’m going to be—I’m going to need to defeat an armored-type vehicle someday, I know that . . . Dealer: Well, then, when them cattle carts come running down your drive, you’d better be able to stop it.

Agent: Exactly, but you know, you can think who drives in armored limousines, that’s why I’m going to need it someday, those people in armored limousines...Alright, [deleted], listen, I’ll let you get running, and I gotta get back to work, I’ll chat with you soon. Thank you very much for your time.

Dealer: Sure.

Agent: Good Luck.

Dealer: Alright, bye bye.

Oregon

Agent: I’m very much interested to making sure that these rounds can go through like, the bullet-proof glass. Do you think they’ll go through bullet-proof glass?

Dealer: Well, they’re loaded with, uh, the bullet weight that the military uses now is like the 660 or something.

Agent: Uh, huh.

Dealer: Well, in the old days, in the old [??], they used 700 grains, 720 or something. But nowadays they use 660, so they’re getting a little more velocity out of it. And, I just can’t see glass standing up to that.

Agent: How about an armored limousine?

Dealer: Yeah, you’re using it to test it?

Agent: Well, I . . .

Dealer: Because we have some people who are testing armored cars. Like 30-06 AP rounds.

Agent: Well, I . . . these would be a lot . . . theoretically the .50 cal should be a lot stronger than a 30-06 . . .

Dealer: Right, right.

Agent: AP.

Dealer: Right . . . So it should go through.

Agent: Well, yeah, I guess you say testing against armored limousines . . . Yeah, I’ll be testing against armored limousines. But, but it’s gotta work.

Dealer: Right.

Agent: You know, I don’t want to have the chance of it not working.

Dealer: Uh, well, there’s no way that I can guarantee it. I’m not familiar with the glass they’re using nowadays.

Agent: But, but, but you’ve had no complaints from your customers about these being misfires or anything, these rounds are pretty good?

Dealer: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

AUDIO CLIP FIVE

(Oregon)

Agent: Right. And then, if I theoretically wanted to use these rounds to take down an aircraft, say either a helicopter or something like that, I should be able to take a helicopter down, shouldn’t I?

Dealer: Yeah, they’re not armored. They’re not armored to a point that it would stop. If you look at, uh, a military helicopter that’s been through, uh, like the ones that came back from Vietnam, they’ve got, uh, little plates of metal where they weld up the bullet holes. They just take a little piece of metal and they just weld over the bullet holes. It makes the guy, the next guy, feel more comfortable when he’s in there.

Agent: I guess so.

Dealer: (laughing) You don’t want to see a bullet hole in there.

Agent: Okay.

Dealer: So, yeah, it’ll go through any light stuff like that.

Agent: Good. AUDIO CLIP SIX (Oregon-cont)

Agent: Good. You know, I’m very happy to see that we’ll be able to do business here, because, I’m a little bit concerned, because here on the East Coast when you go to buy ammunition—these large, heavy-duty .50 cal—they ask a lot of questions.

Dealer: Oh.

Agent: And I don’t like people asking me questions why I want this ammunition.

Dealer: Well, see, they use them out here for hunting.

Agent: Um huh. Well, you could say I’m going to be using this for hunting also, but just hunting of a different kind.

Dealer: (laughing) As long as it’s noth-nothing illegal.

Agent: Well, I wouldn’t consider it illegal.

Dealer: Okay. Alright.

To join the campaign to keep .50-caliber sniper rifles out of the hands of terrorists, go to:

http://app.etapestry.com/hosted/FreedomStatesAlliance/Signup.html

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