JANUARY 2005

FCI Response to 60 Minutes
January 29, 2005
Judging from the response we are receiving at FCI from those of you who watched the '60 Minutes' program on the 50 caliber rifle last night, it is clear we all feel as if we've been had one more time. Ronnie Barrett did the very best he could do with portraying our sport to be what it actually is, but 60 minutes had control of the spin and they were able to get their message across at our expense.

We are disappointed with the overall tone and outcome of the program, but we do want to point out some things we all need to be aware of. Have you ever wondered why 60 Minutes chose this particular time to run a program denouncing the 50 BMG rifle? The answer is it is that time of year when bills are being submitted into every state legislature in the country as well as into the hopper of our federal legislature. These bills need sponsors and co-sponsors if they are going to successfully wind their way through the various legislative processes to become the 'law of the land' as did AB-50 in CA last year.

This is the beginning of that process. This is the way major news media outlets such as CBS (aka: 60 Minutes) become directly involved in the lobbying process in America. They educate the American public in the way they want them to think so as to make the passing of these bills a much easier task.

The program by 60 Minutes is also a good indication of how serious the anti-gun left is about pushing their agenda of total gun control. For a media outlet as big as CBS to promote their political agenda on prime time television at this specific time is to give us all fair warning of what is about to occur. I expect bills to ban the fifty caliber rifle to be introduced into several legislatures in the coming week or two. Fresh on the heels of their victory in CA with AB-50 we can expect to see several other major media organizations pick up the theme projected by 60 Minutes to soundly thrash any legitimate uses of the .50 BMG as a sporting rifle.

We are in a fire fight folks. The sooner we realize it the better off we will be. We really need to circle our wagons and pool our resources if we are going to have any success at defeating this issue. There are two things I'd recommend we start with:

1. If you are not a member of the Fifty Caliber Shooters Assn., Inc. (FCSA) join. Join immediately and if you have friends who own a fifty caliber rifle talk them into joining too. You can join online at www.fcsa.org or call them at (435) 527-9245. We're all involved in this fight.

2. If a newspaper or magazine article is published in your region that is positive or negative about the fifty caliber sport, forward a copy of that article to FCI so we can respond to the article. Our contact info is attached below.

FCI and FCSA will be working hard as a team to protect our sport. Having been directly involved in the lobbying side of this issue for the past five years, I am more concerned today about the possibility of us losing our guns than I have ever been. This is not something I say to scare anyone, I'm more interested in providing everyone with a situational awareness of the obstacles we have to overcome. This will always be an uphill fight for us. Together we can beat this. I'm absolutely sure of it. We just need to all become aware of the fight and get involved.