Is Fifty caliber legal in RI?

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Hi everyone,
I work in the veterinary hospital, and once we had seen a medium-size dog shot with a 50 caliber rifle. Of course, the animal could not be saved.[sad]
I am wondering if owning a 50 caliber rifle is legal in RI, or the shooterdid not really obey the gun laws?
 
BP or cartridge?

Not that it makes any difference I'm aware of. There were also .50 BMG rifles at a certain RI club's field day a few years back.

In short, I am unaware of any such cretinous statutes in RI - or anyplace else East of CA.

I suspect this is just more of your misinformation, like burglars suing you if they slip on your floor during their felony......
 
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There are different kinds of ".50 caliber". The round commonly thought of when you refer to .50 cal is something that was originally a machine gun round and is also called the "50 BMG" (browing machine gun):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.50_BMG

If the dog had been shot with that there likely would not have been much left of him. You can get rifles that will shoot 50 BMG rounds - but they are expensive and rare (because the rifles and the ammunition are bothe expensive).

There are also other 50 calibre rounds available for pistols and hunting rifles. I honestly don't know much about these. If the dog was shot with a hunting rifle this is most likely the round type you were looking at - if it was 50 calibre.

One of the common misconceptions among people who are unfamiliar with firearms is that larger calibers are bad. If you are hunting believe it or not what you want to do is kill the animal dead with one shot. To wound the animal and have it suffer - then you chase it thru the woods trying to catch up with before it crawls in a hole and dies - is thought of as more inhumane than killing it outright.

Responsible hunters hunt animals for food. They do not want to lose the deer they just shot by having it not go down on the first shot. The best way to ensure that happens is to use a round big enough to bring the animal down the first time - dead - not wounded.

Another common misconception among non-firearm owners is that all of us are gun crazy hunters who just live to kill poor defenseless animals. That couldn't be further from the truth. In fact if you spend much time on gun forums you will find there is a sizeable portion of gun owners who do not hunt - and in fact don't want to hunt.

I have found that there are a lot people who own "assault rifles" - which the anti- gun people would have you believe make you into a evil killer - are animal lovers and have never hunted. This is because these people choose these types of guns to DEFEND life - not to take it.
 
In fact if you spend much time on gun forums you will find there is a sizeable portion of gun owners who do not hunt - and in fact don't want to hunt.

Good point. I fit into that category. I don't begrudge anybody else hunting, but it's not something I've ever had much interest in. It's the thought of your second scenario above (wounding the animal and having it suffer for a while before it dies) that I've always been afraid of.
 
we had seen a medium-size dog shot with a 50 caliber rifle.

My question is how do you know that? As stated before, if it was a close shot there would not be much left of the dog or it would at least not be in any condition to be transported to an animal hospital.
 
If the dog had been shot with that there likely would not have been much left of him.

No, that was a hunting rifle, not BMG. The dog was DOA (dead on arrival), and any vet professional could say that resuscitation is useless here. Truly, one of the saddest cases we had seen.
That was supposingly a self-defense action, however, I thing the shooter overestimated the thread.
We found out some details, like what gun was it and how that happened just later, I guess some investigation took place. Still, I do not know everything about that, and do not know enough about firearms to make my own conclusions. Thank you and others for the usegul links, BTW! [grin]
All I can advice to dog owners is keeping your beloved pet leashed and supervised, to avoid many emergency vet visits.

One of the common misconceptions among people who are unfamiliar with firearms is that larger calibers are bad. If you are hunting believe it or not what you want to do is kill the animal dead with one shot. I have found that there are a lot people who own "assault rifles" - which the anti- gun people would have you believe make you into a evil killer - are animal lovers and have never hunted..

I personally have nothing against hunting. We eat meat, right? That means, an animal must be killed. I think that consuming meat from supermarkets while calling hunters "unhumane" is a hipocricy (hope I spelled it right). Just like taking ibuprofen for a headaches and protesting against animal research. After all, animals in many commercial farms experience more suffering than those shot by hunters. I however feel, as a veterinary professional, that every effort must be made to minimize suffering of animals used for food or research.


This is because these people choose these types of guns to DEFEND life - not to take it.
A great point, totally agree![wink]
 
There is nothing in RIGL banning anything in .50 cal. The only restriction is that the AG will not give a permit to carry anything larger than .45 . Other than that .50 cal is perfectly legal, I have two, a handgun and rifle, both legally purchased in this state. The only banned items are machine guns and silencers.
 
I'd like to know how you determined it was a .50 because theres not many .50 cal guns out there that would leave a bullet in a dog enough to ID them unless the dog was the size of a bear :)
 
I'd like to know how you determined it was a .50 because theres not many .50 cal guns out there that would leave a bullet in a dog enough to ID them unless the dog was the size of a bear :)

We were informed about it by officials of some sort, I beleive Animal Control. The dog looked like... hm... like nothing could help it.[thinking]
 
This all assumes the dog was actually shot with a .50 caliber projectile. As the source of this information isn't even specifically identified ("I beleive [sic] Animal Control") and may not really know, and the OP is unfamiliar with the guns and laws of this part of the world, the very premise of this thread is questionable.

A .50 BMG used in a defensive shooting of a dog? Get real.

.500 S&W Magnum? Maaaaaybe.

.50 Action Express? Possibly.

Any other large caliber which would produce a roughly .5" hole, such as .40 or .45? Quite likely.
 
I'd be more inclined to think it was a .50 caliber black powder rifle than a .50 BMG. The .50 BMG rifles weigh 20+ pounds and up, not exactly something to wingshoot a dog with.

As stated above .50 BMG rifles like the Barret M82 and the Armalite AR0-50 are NOT banned in RI.
 
I'd be hard pressed to imagine someone wielding a .50BMG in a defensive situation against a dog. Maybe a .500 S&W or something.
 
Scriv, the .50 Cal GI that Ross mentioned is a new gun on the market. It's a slightly larger version of the 1911, and shoots a new proprietary .50 caliber round. Looks pretty neat to me.
 
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