Specialized, Lexis-Nexis doesn't give URLs or Links, but here are some articles critical of civilians having access to "tactical training"
I'll post only a couple, and then just give newspaper and date for others.
Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
October 11, 2002 Friday
Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Column 1; National Desk; Pg. 28
LENGTH: 1175 words
HEADLINE: THE MARYLAND SHOOTINGS: GUN OWNERS;
Subculture of Snipers Disowns a Marksman
BYLINE: By FOX BUTTERFIELD
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Oct. 10
BODY:
For the state of the art in personal firearms, few weapons can top the Robar RC-50. Though it weighs 25 pounds, it has few peers when it comes to accuracy. In steady and experienced hands, it can propel a devastating .50-caliber round into a helicopter or armored vehicle up to a mile away.
The RC-50, which sells for about $5,000, is one of dozens of models of high-tech "precision" rifles that gun manufacturers are supplying -- not only to soldiers and police officers, but also to a rapidly growing band of civilians who cultivate sniper skills as a hobby.
In fact, the recent series of deadly sniper attacks in the Washington area has cast a light on what many gun experts say is an expanding sniper subculture with Web sites, books, training ranges and a growing supply of new and advanced weapons.
It is the sort of attention that sniper enthusiasts wish would go away.
"This guy is not a sniper," said Rodney Ryan, who runs a sniper training center in Elk Garden, W.Va.
The term sniper, Mr. Ryan said, refers to a military and law enforcement specialty. "He is just a crazed gunman, and he is giving snipers a bad reputation."
To Mr. Ryan, a former Army sniper and former member of the Washington police SWAT team, the growing interest in sniper training and equipment is a legitimate outgrowth of the need for expert long-range marksmen in the military and in law enforcement, combined with the development of more advanced gun technology.
Mr. Ryan said his Storm Mountain Training Center, which opened in 1996 and has had more than 5,000 students, required every applicant to submit a criminal background check in advance from the applicant's local police department along with a letter of recommendation from someone like a minister.
"We don't want some knucklehead crazed criminal coming here," Mr. Ryan said.
Robert Barrkman, president of Robar Companies Inc. of Phoenix, said that the primary market for his expensive sniper rifles was law enforcement and military agencies, but that he also sold some rifles to "very affluent civilians" who use them for target shooting.
In the 1990's, the market for sniper rifles expanded, Mr. Barrkman said, but his market share has dropped in the last few years because most of the large gun makers had also entered the business, making less expensive versions.
About four years ago, Robar stopped calling its guns sniper rifles and began selling them as "precision rifles" or "counter-sniper rifles," Mr. Barrkman said. The term "sniper rifle" was bad for business, he said.
But Mr. Barrkman said he had no qualms about about selling such a powerful and accurate weapon to civilians. "Why shouldn't civilians be able to buy such guns?" Mr. Barrkman asked. "As a citizen of the United States, a person doesn't have to have a reason to buy a gun."
Gun control advocates see things differently and say the growth of sniper shooting as a hobby would inevitably lead to violent deaths. "Given the development of a whole sniper culture over the past 10 years, it was almost inevitable that some deranged person or a terrorist was going to be drawn in to acting out the sniper mentality," said Tom Diaz, a senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center, a gun control group here.
"The sniper's motto is, 'One shot, one kill,' " Mr. Diaz said. "That's what this guy has been doing right here around our nation's capital."
No accurate statistics exist on the number of sniper rifles being manufactured or sold in the United States, in part because neither the firearms industry nor the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms breaks down figures for rifles into the sniper category. Moreover, some weapons used by snipers are modified versions of standard military or hunting rifles.
In fact, the rifle employed by the Washington sniper, judging by the .223 caliber of the bullet fragments and shell casing that have been found, is probably a version of the standard American military M-16 or a Remington or Bushmaster hunting rifle, the A.T.F. has said.
But as one indication of the size of the market for sniper rifles, Mr. Diaz estimates that 15,000 to 20,000 sniper rifles just of the largest legal size, .50-caliber, have been made for civilians over the last two decades.
Mr. Diaz and sniper enthusiasts differ on what has driven the increased interest in sniping, which combines long-distance marksmanship with the arts of stalking and concealment. To Mr. Diaz, a good part of the answer is that gun sales have been declining for years, as the number of hunters has plunged.
"In order to rejuvenate its sales, the gun industry has gone out and marketed sniper rifles," he said.
As evidence, he pointed to statements in gun magazines by gun industry leaders. For example, Mr. Barrkman told Jane's International Defense Review that "the proliferation of sniper weapons is one of the few growth areas that exist for small-arms makers."
Similarly, Tactical Shooter magazine, designed for snipers, said in a recent article that "the real future of tactical shooting, like it or not, is at the civilian level."
But Mr. Ryan, the head of the Storm Mountain Training Center, sees a different motivation. The people who attend his sniper courses do it to personally challenge themselves, he said. Some are former military people who always wanted to be snipers but may have failed to qualify while they were in the service. Others are doctors or lawyers who sign up for the weeklong course for the challenges of hiding in the forest in heavy camouflage gear and learning how to calculate a range with the wind blowing.
Mr. Ryan and Norm Chandler, a retired marine lieutenant colonel who teaches sniper courses at the Blackwater Training Center in the Great Dismal Swamp near Moyock, N.C., said the Washington sniper was not a very good shot.
"It takes very little training to hit a target at 100 yards," Mr. Chandler said, noting that the Washington sniper was believed to have fired from about 100 yards.
Mr. Chandler said he was skeptical that the Washington sniper had a military or police background and was more likely a civilian. "He is using .223 caliber," he said. "That is small and not as accurate. If he were military or police, he'd used a .308."
"He is probably a fringe puppy, a sniper wannabe," Mr. Chandler said.
He said he tries to discourage such people from attending his sniper classes at Blackwater. "There are these idiots out there," he said. "The sniper culture is faddish, very stylish," for some people who want to claim they were in the military at a time when fewer Americans actually enroll in the armed forces.
Mr. Chandler and Mr. Ryan speculate that the Washington sniper may be operating as part of a two-man team. Military snipers generally work as a team, with one soldier spotting the target and calculating the range while the other concentrates on firing, and at least one witness has said he saw the sniper driving away in a white truck with two passengers.
To Mr. Ryan, there is another reason the sniper has a partner. "He is doing it because he wants someone to brag to," he said.
URL:
http://www.nytimes.com
GRAPHIC: Photo: In addition to sniper training, the Storm Mountain Training Center also offers equipment for sale, including this "rifleman kit" for about $300.
LOAD-DATE: October 11, 2002
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