GAO WARNS OF SNIPER RIFLE SALES

WASHINGTON (AP) Military sniper rifles like those used to stop Iraqi
tanks during the Gulf War are now in the hands of thousands of
civilians, including suspected terrorists and drug dealers, according to
congressional
investigators.

Agents from the General Accounting Office, the investigative wing of
Congress, found that long-range, armor-piercing .50-caliber rifles are
readily available through dealers, gun shows and the Internet. Buyers
only need to prove that they are 18 years old and don't have a
criminal record.

The agents also told a Democratic-organized hearing Monday that
sellers of armor-piercing ammunition used in the semiautomatic weapons were
willing to do business with them even when the agents, pretending to
be buyers, said they wanted to attack armored limousines or "take a
helicopter down."

GAO agent Robert Hast said the long-range weapons gained popularity
after they were used to attack Iraqi tanks in the 1991 Persian Gulf
War. The weapons are highly accurate up to 2,000 yards meaning a
marksman could stand at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington and hit a target
at the Pentagon in
Virginia

and can be effective at distances of 7,500 yards.

Most deer hunters, by contrast, shoot at ranges of 150 to 200
yards.

Gast said that because gunmakers are not required to provide
information on the caliber of weapons they sell, it's not clear how
many of the high-powered weapons are in circulation. But one major producer
sold more than
2,800 to civilians in the 1987-98 period, he said.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has tracked several of
those sniper rifles to a Mexican drug cartel, suspected terrorists, a
mentally ill cop killer and the Branch Davidians during the 1993
siege near Waco, Texas.

"There is a subculture growing in this country about the use of these
weapons," said Tom Diaz of the Violence Policy Center, calling them
"the ideal tool for assassination and destruction."

Diaz urged Congress to pass legislation putting .50-caliber rifles
under the same restrictions imposed on machine guns and weapons of
war, and banning armor-piercing ammunition.

Rep. Rod Blagojevich, D-Ill., who commissioned the investigation with
Rep.

Henry Waxman, D-Calif., plans to offer legislation restricting sales
of the weapon.

James Schmidt, head of an Arizona ammunition manufacturer and a
director for the 50-Caliber Shooters Association, said the rifles were
not a social threat because they were heavy, costly at more than $6,000 and
difficult to
use for rapid-fire shooting. "This is not a rifle that one would carry
very far," he said.

Diaz said the weapons were being sold in "an increasingly weird
cultural context" that "glorifies the sniper mystique."

He said two .50-caliber sniper rifles were used by the Branch
Davidians in the 1993 siege near Waco, Texas, one reason law enforcement
officials
had to use armored personnel carriers.