Worlds apart

I think that the "ATF" should be a convenience store. The VPC thinks that the ATF is way to lenient.

c Federal law requires that any firearm proposed to be imported into the United States havea “sporting purpose” (with exceptions for police or military use). However, the Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco and Firearms is notoriously lax in its administration of this requirement and has clearlyallowed the import of military sniper rifles under other names.

And the VPC thinks that the ATF is "notoriously lax in it's enforcement".

In short, a sniper rifle by any other name is still as deadly. A sniper rifle is bestrecognized by how it is made and what it is capable of doing—whether it is “purposedesigned”and “purpose-built” for sniping. This firearm is set apart from others notprincipally by language, but by its exceptional accuracy, range, and power.

This subject is near and dear to my heart because there are no classification of firearms that are not powerful. The Israeli's used the lowly 10/22 as a "sniper rifle" for very specific missions. The Remington 700 was not purpose designed by Remington to be a sniper rifle, the Marine Corps CHOSE the 700 action when they spec'd what they wanted for their sniper rifle from the best available components of the era.

Here is what the VPC has to say: As an example, we know the Marine Corps M40 rifle,developed for the Marines during the Vietnam War by Remington Arms,was not originally intended to be a SWAT or varmint (animal type) rifle.However, it was soon brought out as the “Varmint Special” and later the“Police Sniper Special” or PSS. Today’s current police model is labeled the Remington 700P. Somehow they forget that the Remington 700 was originally designed to kill animals, and that humans ARE an animal.

The base assumption that the VPC has is this, there are "evil" guns meant solely for killing people, and then there are "not so evil" guns (like the 30-30 carbine) which nobody in their right mind would use on elk or big bear.

The idiots forget one simple truth. In US history we have never had a firearm specifically designed as a sniper rifle for the US Army. The M107 was first a civilian sporting arm, the Rem700 was first a civilian sporting arm, the Winchester M70 was first a civilian sporting arm, the M110 (aka SR25) was first a civilian sporting arm, even our in house sniper rifles such as the M21 and M25 (based on the M14 platform) were using National Match civilian parts.

Without a civilian shooting community WE WOULDN'T have a real military sniping community.

Remember, when someone starts talking about "evil guns" that need to be banned, it is just an attempt to divide and conquer. As Col Townsend Whelen said a century ago, "Only accurate rifles are interesting".

And the VPC is only interested in making all guns illegal.