Can't have a NY Times article about guns without throwing in a gratuitous comment about MACHINE GUNS!!! How can one distingish between a non-machine gun bullet hole and a machine gun bullet hole?
The vertical "stringing" of the holes across the target? At least that what tended to happen when I fired an M-2 carbine. Practice and proper technique will reduce but not eliminate the effect. Oh and firing that M-2 was a blast. Pun intended.
Lots of holes, probably runnning up and right off the top of the target :)