There’s a scary story out of St. Louis, MO today about an identity theft. Steven Weiss lost his wallet at a mall, and then became the victim of a harrowing series of fake credit card charges, identifying information theft, and even threats by phone.
After a long investigation, the FBI eventually fingered Mario Smith for the crime, and that’s why we’re interested. Because even though Smith never used a gun against Weiss, guess what he had in his car when the FBI pulled up to talk to him (emphasis ours).
Smith had been the subject of numerous warrants for failing to appear in court, according to documents filed in the Weiss case. When police interviewed him in August, they reported finding two .50-caliber guns in his car.
That’s .50 caliber, the exact same guns that gun guys always like to tell us are never used in crimes. Almost every day we hear from a gun guy complaining that no criminal would ever use a .50 caliber, but the FBI caught Smith running an identity theft game, and guess what he depended on to commit his crimes?
Something like this fits right on the list of .50 caliber crimes, compiled by the Violence Policy Center. The .50 caliber rifle is a weapon that can shoot through steel, take down small planes on takeoff and landing, and yet is freely available to almost anyone in the United States. It’s just another weapon that doesn’t belong within our shores.
