The dreaded .50 caliber ‘assault pistol’

Nearly a year-and-a-half ago, I announced my plans to get an AR pistol chambered for .50 Beowulf. Some day, perhaps, I would come up with a practical application for it, but actually, practical applications aren’t the point here. The point is that as a handgun (technically), an “assault weapon” (making it the dreaded “assault pistol“), and a .50 caliber gun, this single firearm constitutes a three-pronged attack on the tender sensibilities of the forcible disarmament advocates. I know, by the way, that the .50 Beowulf is vastly less powerful than the .50 BMG cartridge that so terrifies the other side, but most of them don’t–they hear “.50 caliber,” and visualize me knocking down jumbo jets at 30,000 feet.

One of my favorite statist civilian disarmers, Commissar . . . er, Illinois State Senator (and former executive director of the rabidly anti-gun Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence) Dan Kotowski, has made going after .50 caliber guns, magazines with capacities of eleven or more rounds, “assault weapons,” etc., a signature issue of his. It is he, in fact, who I credit with inspiring me to get such a firearm. There’s just something about being told that one must be prevented from owning some item, that makes that item all that much more desirable.

Actually turning my “.50 caliber protest” into reality was a long road, with numerous twists and detours, but the destination has now been reached. I present (drum roll, please) . . . Kotowski’s Lament:

Clearly, I’m no photographer.

Here’s another shot, with the dreaded “high capacity” magazine (designed to hold 90 rounds of .223/5.56mm, but can be used to hold 34 rounds of .50 Beowulf–although it’s not full in the picture).

Well, do you like it, Dan? Come down to this part of the state and go to the range with me–I’ll make a shooter out of you yet.