Posted on 09/23/2024 9:37:13 AM PDT by thegagline
The alleged gunman accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump at his Florida golf course had 11 rounds loaded in his assault rifle, federal prosecutors said Monday — as they revealed the first close-up photo of the weapon.
The image of the Soviet-designed SKS rifle that was found stashed in Ryan Wesley Routh’s alleged sniper’s nest at the West Palm Beach golf course on Sept. 15 was included in a detention memo filed Monday. The rifle has been modified with a detachable magazine, a modern stock and a scope to make it more accurate to shoot at long range.
The serial number on the rifle was “obliterated and unreadable,” prosecutors alleged.
Routh’s fingerprint was also allegedly found on the weapon, the court papers state.
The feds found the firearm — as well as backpacks and a GoPro camera — soon after the 48-year-old suspect fled the hiding spot where he’d allegedly been waiting to take a shot at the former president.
*** Authorities who searched his car subsequently found six cellphones, including one that showed a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico, the court papers charge.
They also found a list with dates in August, September and October – as well as venues where Trump had appeared or was scheduled to appear, prosecutors said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
And baseball bats there big in NY city.
I’d venture to guess that most gun grabbers think that a person who has a Y chromosome is a girl if he wears a skirt and some dime store rouge
As in “oh dear, my SKS jammed again.” The SKS is notoriously known as a POS.
Wait, I thought Donald and Vlad were besties.
From all the chatter....isn’t this a ‘used’ rifle that you’d typically pick up at a rural flea-market situation, with no questions asked?
Based on the guy’s history....I just don’t see him being much of a expert in warfare, weapons, or tactics.
Hardly an AK47. In fact, the most obvious question not answered if it was originally described as an AK47 was whether it was an automatic, since a true AK47 has that capability. The gun pictured in the Post story doesn’t seem to be anything but semi-automatic. The media sucks and everyone in the police and presidential protection group do as well if they told anyone that thing was a real AK47.
I’ve got a stock Chinese SKS… 1000s or rounds and it’s never jammed. The SKS is a carbine suitable for a peasant army. Useful as a farm or brush gun, good for throwing behind the seat of your pickup. Certainly not a sniper rifle, not for any shot over 100 yards.
Having said that, the aftermarket banana mag he used rarely feed without jamming. The stock 10 round box mag works fine. Also I’ve never seen a scope mount on an SKS was any good. His looks like it is taped on.. I don’t even see how it can work, it looks like it will interfere with the bolt.
What is an assault rifle?
“For a guy making a living out of being a handyman and roofer, he seems to have had access to considerable resources.”
These jerks will claim any long gun is an assault weapon, especially if “decorated” like one.
Not only that, but gun ownership in Hawaii is severely restricted compared to other states, being islands and all. So how did he come by his SKS? Did he have it stored somewhere in N.C.? or did someone lend/give it to him? The serial number might be ‘obliterated’, but our crack ATF/FBI agents should be able to pull a number and trace it back. But will they?
Based on the guy's history....I just don't see him being much of a expert in warfare, weapons, or tactics.
Yeah, it's a Comm Bloc surplus Cold War rifle from the 1940s. Saw use in Korea and Vietnam. but was quickly replaced by the AK-47 in the 1950s.
Tons of them came in to the US after the fall of communism and sold dirt cheap.
Ironically, it's kind of the Carcano of it's day.
It's exactly the rifle I would choose if were part of a foreign conspiracy to assassinate the President and wanted to make it look like I was a lone wolf wack job
Good enough to get the job done but exactly the opposite of what a serious pro would choose for the job.
Makes me very suspicious
Yeah that’s the way it goes.
Yes. Over the years we've all read and seen tv crime shows where the police labs use x-rays and other techniques to read the SN even though the surface has been ground away. The stamping process leaves images in the metal grain structure below the ground-away surface.
The press has immediately accepted that the "serious number was erased" and they seem to believe there is no way to read the number. None of them to my knowledge as asked the simple question: "Can the SN be read even though the surface is ground away?"
Recovering destroyed serial numbers on metal objects
Metal Working World Magazine
March 18, 2015A recent research coming from National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) demonstrates a technique for mapping deformation in metals that can recover destroyed serial numbers on metal objects such as firearms, a common challenge in forensics.
The technique might also meet other forensic needs such as reconstructing vehicle identification numbers or imprints on ammunition casings, the researchers suggest. Law enforcement agencies use serial numbers to track ownership of firearms and build criminal cases. But serial numbers can be removed by scratching, grinding or other methods. Analysts typically try to restore the numbers with acid or electrolytic etching or polishing, because deformed areas behave differently from undamaged material. But these methods don’t always work.
As a possible alternative, NIST researchers used a technique called electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) to read, in the crystal structure pattern, imprints on steel that had been removed by polishing. In EBSD, a scanning electron microscope scans a beam of electrons over the surface of a crystalline material such as a metal. The electrons strike atoms in the target and bounce back. Because the atoms are arranged in a regular pattern, the scattered electrons interact and form patterns that reveal the crystal’s structure on a scale down to tens of nanometers. The more perfect the crystal structure, the stronger and clearer the pattern. Software can then calculate the pattern quality to reveal crystal damage; areas with more damage produce lower quality patterns.
In the NIST experiments, described in Forensic Science International, researchers hammered the letter “X” into a polished stainless steel plate. The letter stamps were as deep as 140 micrometers, meeting federal regulations for firearm serial numbers. The researchers then polished the metal again to remove all visible traces of the letters, and collected the EBSD diffraction patterns and pattern quality data and analyzed them for evidence of the imprints. Ordinary SEM imaging methods revealed very faint outlines of the X stamps in the metal grains. However, pattern quality mapping more clearly revealed the outlines of the Xs, and according to the team, would probably be acceptable for submission as forensic evidence. The latter technique is significantly more sensitive to small amounts of crystal lattice damage.
The technique is still experimental, but shows some promise. The NIST team found evidence of metal deformation down to about 760 micrometers below the surface, much deeper than the actual X stamps. Even so, the researchers say it’s not clear whether EBSD pattern quality mapping is more sensitive and/or more effective than conventional techniques for reconstructing serial numbers, or whether EBSD will work in cases of the most extreme destruction. Experimental comparison of the new technique to traditional techniques is under way.
It was a Russian sks. Not a Chinese SKS.
Which means it was a Quality gun.
I own a Russian SKS. made in 1954.
In NY it is considered an assault rifle Because it has a fixed bayonet.
I bought it back in the day by mail order for like 75 bucks.
Not much different from a Remington Model 8 made in 1905. That is 119 years ago.
Semi auto rifles were never a problem till the news media began to hype them as “bad” in 1985.
Rem Model 8...
https://images6.alphacoders.com/383/383492.jpg
So basically....whole story starts to resemble Oswald-1963...wouldn’t you say? I felt that way with shooter #1 in Pennsylvania.
Always amazed me on the 1962 angle to kill de Gaulle...leading French investigation back to CIA help, and de Gaulle calling JFK in summer of 1963...asking questions.
Hillary has an alibi OK? Just putting that out there.
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