The rifle Oswald should have used

[Joe Elliott]

Perhaps he won't but I did. Thanks for posting the link to an interesting article. I think what should be added to the paragraph titled "A Valid "Oswald" Rifle Test" is:

* Before firing, the rifle must be disassembled, carried around in a bag for a bit and then reassembled with a dime.

* The scope must be misaligned so that all shots land above and to the right of the target in the cross-hairs.

I would have a few extra requirements.

•   Someone who passed Marine requirements within the last 10 years.
•   Someone who has not practiced with any firearm in the last 3 years, except for the following.
•   Someone who is allowed to practice with the Carcano they will ultimately be tested with. They can practice working the bolt for several hours, but only get 15 practice shots at a stationary target, like a cardboard box. Then wait at least 3 months after last touching the rifle.
•   Have the scope misaligned, but the iron sights available for use.
•   Assemble the rifle by tightening the 4 screws with a dime.
•   They can adjust a homemade sling to fit them, as Oswald had available to help steady the aim.
•   Fire 3 shots at a moving target with the same speed and angles as Dealey Plaza.

Do this with 10 people, each who get one try at the moving target.

If an armored car with GPS guidance is not available, to replicate the speeds and direction of the vehicle, maybe a couple of carts pulled by a cable would do. One such cart won’t do, because it won’t be able to turn to the left, as the limousine did between z160 and z230.

I would guess that a few of them could get one hit within 4 inches of the center of the target, and another within 10 inches. But as a LNer, I would be curious to see a proper if elaborate test.

[John Iacoletti]

“I haven’t committed any acts of violence.”  - LHO

You have to be extremely gullible to buy that tale.

What Oswald actually said was "I don't know what dispatches you people have been given, but I emphatically deny these charges".

[Jerry Freeman]

Someone who is allowed to practice with the Carcano they will ultimately be tested with. They can practice working the bolt for several hours, but only get 15 practice shots at a stationary target, like a cardboard box. Then wait at least 3 months after last touching the rifle.

Where is the evidence that LHO "practiced" shooting this rifle?
Hint....Marina did not witness any such practice.

[Charles Collins]

What Oswald actually said was "I don't know what dispatches you people have been given, but I emphatically deny these charges".

The quote I used was from the very end of Mytton’s post (which I quoted). It’s apparently a quote from Curry’s book. But your correction is probably accurate. I’m not interested in arguing about it. Thanks!

[Joffrey van de Wiel]

What Oswald actually said was "I don't know what dispatches you people have been given, but I emphatically deny these charges".

Doesn't that statement contradict the notion that Oswald assassinated the President in order to make a name for himself?

[John Mytton]

Doesn't that statement contradict the notion that Oswald assassinated the President in order to make a name or himself?

Oswald knew exactly what he was doing, and here almost 57 years later he's still being talked about, will anybody be talking about any of us 57 years after we die?

JohnM

[Paul May]

The whole tale of Oswald as the lone gunman makes no sense. Oswald was highly intelligent. He spoke Russian like a native. He read voraciously. He made it to the second level of photo processing at Jaggars-Stovall. Yet, we are supposed to believe that, instead of just buying a rifle for a cheaper price at a local gun store and leaving no trail but a disputable ID by the gun store worker who sold him the gun--instead of doing this, we're supposed to believe that he ordered a WWII surplus rifle by mail using the fake name Hidell and left a paper trail a mile long back to himself, that he then shot JFK with a fake Hidell ID card in his wallet, that he hid the rifle but left the casings in plain view, that he shot Tippit and again left his casings in plain view (but supposedly "hid" his jacket), and that when he was arrested he still had the fake Hidell ID card on him!

You have to be extremely gullible to buy that tale.

On the contrary. One has to be a devout conspiracy type to believe the alternative. Being highly intelligent, which Oswald wasn’t has little to do with reality. Oswald was smart but he was also a fatalist. He wasn’t a deep thinker. In 1963 Oswald didn’t have two nickels to rub together. Why would he choose to be recognized in a gun or pawn shop? Yes, he read voraciously. What did he read? Spy novels and Ernest Hemingway. Per Robert Oswald, after the USMC, he wanted to live an adventurous life as Hemingway did. Hence, the Russia trip. He’d be a cheap mans James Bond. You complicate a simple story. The actual evidence proves that. Anybody can find conspiracy if they look hard enough. You appear to do exactly that.