Friday, March 29, 2013

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.

13 comments:

  1. Just because one owns a hoe does not mean you are a master gardener..

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    1. @Anon: You are correct. However, a detective should be able to correctly write down the markings on a firearm. If that inventory was introduced into evidence in another setting, a defense attorney would have a field day with it.

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  2. Let's not forget when Lanza had a 'Canta-12' shotgun in the boot of his car...

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  3. I want a .323 rifle!

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    1. So get one! :) Lots of 8mm Mausers out there.

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  4. Just sounds like typos, to me.

    Amusing, but nothing more.

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    1. @Sigivald: It may well be a typo on the part of whomever typed it out. That still doesn't mean that it is right. It is an official court document. It should be correct and typo (if it was one) should be caught.

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  5. Albion Motors produced revolvers, not rifles. ... Search the SN. That rifle was a Type 4 MK 1 produced at a factory near Liverpool!

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  6. If I were the defense attorney, I'd be bending myself in half to get this search warrant introduced as evidence at trial (which wouldn't be that hard) and get the detective to read it aloud in open court (also not too difficult.) It's hardly a slamdunk, but it'd be a good first step to weakening his credibility as a witness. If you can't tell "303" from "323," "Albian" from "Albion," and "4 MK 1" from "44MK1..." Can you tell the difference between a Ford and a Chrysler? A blue jacket from a black one? Sunglasses from reading glasses? My client from another man on the street...

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  7. All those guns were illegally confiscated from the Lanza home. If they were all legally registered, not owned Adam Lanza, not used in any crime, or even touched by Lanza, then they need to be returned to whomever is in charge of Nancy's estate. Nancy has not been charged with anything at the moment - except being a murder victim.

    Liste, the police can't tell that a Glock 19 fires 9mm - not 10mm. You have to start off with a Glock 20 for that. Sig-Sauer 226 also fires a 9mm, but for what weapon(s) did they buy .45 cal rounds?

    According to THE ENTIRE STATE-CONTROLLED MEDIA, Lanza had FOUR (4) handguns with him and no AR-15 or any other long gun. There was a Saiga 12-guage shotgun locked in the runk, unused and unfired. NOT an assault rifle.

    So, where is the alleged Bushmaster AR-15 that fired 154 rounds from ten 30-round magazines? They found the magazines but not the gun. They found absolutely nothing that would fire 154 rounds of .223 bullets in less than five minutes - which includes the time to shoot (smash) his way into the school, go from room to room, reload nine magazines, and waste time firing multiple rounds in each victim.

    say "waste time" because his alleged goal was to be the biggest gun-firing mass murderer in history - thanks to the media for making multiple killers into overnight celebrities who would be lionized for years to come.

    If anyone is to blame for mass shootings, it is the government and the media. Throw in the Hollywood, bleeding heart libtards whose movies murder thousands of people a year without remorse.

    Back tothe boxes of .45 cals.


    What is going on here is an attack against gun and ammo manufacturers, plain and simple, by throwing out the names of every popular maker they can think of.

    This is how they would use a national gun registry. They can kill you when they come to arrest you and cover it up by placing any gun they want in your possession.

    If Obama can fake all of his identification papers and change people's votes in elections on an industrial scale, then he can make illegal gun owners of law-aiding citizens who never even touched a gun.

    Not believable with the lone shooter canard. A 2nd shooter would have taken the semi-automatic .223 with him after shooting Lanza in the head and plantig the other guns around him.

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