Why does anybody need a semi-automatic .50 BMG anti-material rifle with sniper precision? Because this is America, and it's an engineering masterpiece akin to a piece of fine art. We are talking about
14,895 ft/lbs of energy that was specifically designed for the most destructive of all heavy machine guns (M2 Browning, hence .50 Browning Machine Gun). The fucking 700 Nitro Express elephant guns don't even come close to that, not even remotely close and they are ungodly. It is the baddest, most overpowered motherfucker of a rifle on this planet. The King Kong of 'small arms', no doubt.
Right.
The CQ 20" barrel variation is for self-defense.
The backstory is awesome, pure ingenuity. Ronnie Barrett is a modern day Da Vinci.
Barrett Firearms Manufacturing is an American manufacturer of firearms and ammunition located in the unincorporated town of Christiana, Tennessee. It was founded in 1982 by Ronnie G. Barrett for the single purpose of building semi-automatic rifles chambered for the powerful .50 BMG (12.7×99mm NATO) ammunition, originally developed for and used in M2 Browning machine guns. Barrett began his work in the early 1980s and the first working rifles were available in 1982, hence the designation M82. Barrett designed every single part of the weapon personally and then went on to market the weapon and mass-produce it out of his own pocket.
The M82A1 is known by the US military as the SASR—Special Applications Scoped Rifle, and it was and still is used as an anti-materiel rifle and explosive ordnance disposal tool. An early customer of the M82 (or "Barrett Light Fifty") was the IRA, which smuggled them and conducted a sniper campaign against the British Armed Forces in Northern Ireland. An unidentified IRA volunteer, quoted by author Toby Harnden, said that: "What's special about the Barrett is the huge kinetic energy...the bullet can just walk through a flak jacket. South Armagh was the prime place to use such weapon because of the availability of Brits. They came to dread it and that was part of its effectiveness."
In response to California's ban of civilian ownership of .50 BMG rifles, Barrett suspended sales and service to all law enforcement agencies in California. On February 26, 2016, Tennessee named the Barrett Model M82 as its official state firearm.
I'm pretty damn happy with Arizona's choice for its official state gun. It's probably the most famous and greatest revolver of all-time in a historical sense, the gun that won the west! Colt is still producing them 140+ years later. <45>
This bro-dude-guy?
Yeah, but he ain't got shit on Jerry. Haha, they actually did a video together awhile back shooting semi-auto pistols and he got fucking smoked (bad) on both accuracy and speed by the old man.