Foreign Caliber Restrictions

[BugI02]

I find myself wondering about countries (such as Mexico) where civilians cannot own firearms chambered in calibers used by their military. I can speculate on some reasons, such as minimizing black market trading in military ammo or making it harder to use stolen military firearms and/or making it apparent by inspection whether certain firearms are illegal. Possibly even making it easier to identify who shot whom in the aftermath of a firefight

But it's just speculation. I was wondering if anyone knows the definitive reason or whether there was a overarching purpose and if so, if it worked/works

Because IMO your just as dead shot with 38SA as you would be with .45, or 7 x 57 instead of 5.56

 

[cosermann]

So-called "reasons" are typically just plausible political cover for whatever restriction/control the .gov wants to put in place. Doesn't answer your question, I know. Just wanted to throw that out there.

And now back to our regularly scheduled thread.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Im with coserman. Its likely a simple case of "if its good enough for the government, its too good for you. If we dont think it is suitable, you are welcome to use that substandard caliber."

 

[eldirector]

Much easier to put down an uprising when it is a .50 caliber vs. #7 shot in an O/U.

 

[cosermann]

The other thing that makes it obvious that it's about "control" is that, I believe, the laws have been changed/updated in many south-of-the-border countries to further prohibit additional calibers that are not used by the military (ex. .40S&W, and .357 SIG).

Since many south-of-the-border countries have among the highest murder rates in the world [1], if you measure "effectiveness" by that metric, such policies are a failure.

But we all know that's not the point/goal of such restrictions anyway.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate