Anyone can buy guns, no questions asked

[krispos42]

196. So can a .308-caliber.

Or a .270, or a 7mm, or a .257, or a 6.5mm, or a .338, or a .375, or an 8mm...


I mean, jeez, it's a HELICOPTER... a collection of miscellaneous parts loosely centered around a oil leak that doesn't so much as "fly" as "vibrate itself off the ground". Unless you're in a military copter, everything on one is aluminum or some kind of composite, made as light and thin as possible.

Hell, a .22 rimfire will pierce a steel drum at close range, and that's stronger than the aluminum panels on a helicopter!


If it's close enough for you hit it while it's moving, you only need a .223 to do serious damage to a helicopter.


The .50-caliber's awesome long-range sniping potential is negated by the rapid motion and rapidly changing range of a moving helicopter. I'll give you that maybe a professional military sniper can hit one at long range, while moving. Maybe. But that's about it.

The chance of a civilian being able to do this is effectively zero. You can't train for these kind of shots at a shooting range. Only the military has the resources and the legal authority to, say, tow a target behind a plane and have snipers try to shoot it from 2,000 yards away with a sniper rifle.

You're using the fear that, a person who has the rifle ($4,000 and up) and the experience to shoot a stationary target($4+ per shot) at 1,000 or more yards (of which there are only a handful of shooting ranges in the country that allow that kind of practice) will be able to readily engage a moving helicopter at altitude and speed, against a blue background with virtually no perception of distance, to justify some sort of massive shift in gun-control laws.

You're worrying way to much.