Illinoisian? Then no .50 bmg for you!

"Although we give lip service to the notion of freedom, we know the government is no longer the servant of the people but, at last, has become the peoples master. We have stood by like timid sheep while the wolf killed – first the weak, then the strays, then those on the outer edges of the flock, until at last the entire flock belonged to the wolf"

 Gerry Spence

Lets look at the evil .50 bmg. It's an interesting microcosm of the gun debate.
One of the reasons for the attention given to banning this caliber, I believe, is the relatively minute number of shooters that use it. Outliers, so to speak, are easy to cull from the pack. 
My elected State officials have been trying to outlaw my ownership of this class of firearms for some time. IL Governor Quinn (D) wants a ban. Chicago Mayor Emmanual (D) wants a ban. IL House Speaker Mike Madigan (D) wants a ban. His little girl, States Attorney Lisa Madigan (D) wants a ban. Blagojevitch (D) wanted to ban it before he was incarcerated. I'll review Ryans position when he's released from prison.

L-R; .50bmg, 300 WinMag, .308 Win, 7.62 x 39, 5.56 NATO, .22 LR

.50 bmg ... Fifty Caliber; Browning Machine Gun.  Entered service around 1921.

brought to you by John Moses Browning

John Moses Browning developed the cartridge around 100 years ago.

Why do they hate this particular cartridge? Others have speculated. Despite the claims by the politicians, this caliber is NOT magical. It's just big. It's powerful.  It's really just a "super-sized" 30-06. It's the largest caliber considered "small arms". Go bigger ... 20mm and such, and you're in "destructive device" territory. In some locales, even those can be legally owned (with proper licensing, etc).

For decades this cartridge languished mostly in the province of the military. It fed the M2 machine gun in its many configurations. Except for legal machinegun owners there was little civilian interest. That began changing in the late 70's and early 80's. Gun smiths around the country began to tinker. By the mid 1980's shooters, smith's and tinkerers of like mind organized. Through their organization, once arcane information was shared. An information data-base was built and expanded upon.
New guns were built. In a few short years, civilian enthusiasts & entrepreneurs had done more research & development on this cartridge than the military and government had done in decades.

Dedicated to the advancement of the .50 BMG cartridge

This led to even more new guns being built, new components, new reloading presses. What was once a moribund military round used in machine guns to devastate an "area of impact" was being transformed into a highly accurate round used for 1000 yard shooting matches.
By the mid 1990's interest in the .50's was large and growing.

Statists didn't seem to like this development. Was it because of a rash of .50 caliber crimes? No. If anything these arms seem to belong to the most law-abiding citizens of the land. The size, weight (most 30 lbs and up) and cost ($1,600.00 and up) of these arms make them an unreasonable choice for street crime. They're just "Too dangerous to be in civilian hands." Note that there's never any mention that "they're too dangerous to be a federal asset", is there? No. It's about gun population control.

We know politicians would-be tyrants want power out of the peoples hands. Tyrants demand a monopoly of power. Tyrants will tell you that  only they can wield this power responsibly. This is a lie.

Tyrants love power ... in their hands. Power distributed to the populace is anathema to a tyrant.

Power to the People

It may be time to resurrect the old hippie/civil rights mantra of "Power to the People".

And if they are able to ban the .50 ? Will they be done? Not likely. Get out your caliber chart and count backwards. Incrementally you'll be told that the next class of calibers will be "too powerful to be in civilian hands." And on down the line. Until ultimately the progs realize that "hands" are too deadly to be in civilian hands.