LE uses for the .50 caliber rifle

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LE uses for the .50 caliber rifle

by Paul Markel

The .50 rifle is usually thought of in a military context. Few people in law enforcement would normally classify it as a law enforcement weapon. Yet, I submit that this is an example of "common wisdom" that isn't the latter. 

The virtue that the .50 brings to the law enforcement armory is penetration. .50 caliber rounds — especially the new class of penetrating rounds — will go through materials and barricades that rounds from "normal" law enforcement weapons (handguns, .223 or even .308 rifles, and shotgun slugs) won't.
 

Three examples will suffice — Remember the MOVE house that was destroyed (along with an entire city block) by a bomb dropped on it by the Philadelphia police in 1985, killing 11 people, five of them children?

PPD dropped this bomb because they couldn't reach through to the snipers in the house with their normal service weapons. A few well-placed .50 rounds would have saved lives, an entire city block, and the city millions of dollars. 

In a military environment, in theory, there are other weapons that can accomplish the same job of the .50, and if that means an escalation of force beyond what the .50 delivers, so be it. By contrast, in a law enforcement situation requiring a .50 rifle, there is little else that will do. We don't have bigger weapons as a rule, and if we did, we cannot accept "collateral" damage — that is, innocents being killed. Thus the .50 caliber rifle has a well defined law enforcement role, and one for which there is really no substitute.

In partnership with PoliceOne.com, POSA is offering free tactical training videos on subjects like tactical shotgun usage, crisis entry, disarming a suspect, and more. Click here to view the videos.

To learn more about POSA, visit www.posai.org

Police Officers Safety Association, Inc.
PO Box 685
Chepachet, RI 02814
Phone: 401.568.9951
Fax: 401.568.9677

David Kenik, Executive Director dkenik@posai.org
Ralph Mroz, Training Director rmroz@posai.org

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