About That .323 Caliber Rifle

The search warrant for the Newtown shooter's home was released yesterday. This occasioned a number of stories about what was found. The detestable Piers Morgan tried to claim that both the shooter and his mother were NRA members based upon certificates for completing a basic NRA firearm safety course and a copy of the "NRA Guide to the Basics of Pistol Shooting" being found in the house. The NRA confirmed later that neither the shooter nor his mother were members.

 CBS News reported that the police found a number of firearms and knives.

Authorities found numerous knives, including samurai swords. They found a military-style uniform in Lanza's bedroom and handwritten notes containing the addresses of local gun shops. The guns found at the home included a .323-caliber Enfield Albian bolt-action rifle, a .22-caliber Savage Mark II rifle, a BB gun and a .22-caliber Volcanic starter pistol.

Normally, when we see such obvious mistakes in a report from the mainstream media, we would pass it off to their persistent lack of knowledge about firearms. While the lack of knowledge about firearms may be present in this case, that description of a ".323-caliber Enfield Albian" rifle comes directly from the search warrant inventory.

The search and inventory of the house was conducted by the Connecticut State Police Major Crime Squad and their forensics team. If you look on pages 8 and 9 of the released search warrant and inventory, you will see listed a number of items. In particular look at Item 13 and Item 14. The first is the contents of a gun safe which included two boxes of .303 British ammunition. The second is a rifle described as "One Enfield Albian bolt action rifle, .323 caliber, model no. 44MKI, SN HC22273A". The inventory was signed by Detective Jeffrey Payette, #679, of the Connecticut State Police.

In all likelihood, the rifle in question is an Enfield SMLE No.4Mk1 in .303 caliber made at Albion Motors during WWII. Given that the Connecticut State Police found .303 British ammunition at the home, one would have thought that the detectives would have made the link between the ammo and the rifle. That they didn't goes to show that just because a cop carries a gun it doesn't mean that he or she knows much about firearms.