Posted on 10/03/2002 11:45:15 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
Absolutely. Just last week muslim terrorists bombed a movie theater and a Hindu fair in India I believe. They consider all non-muslims the enemy. Also of concern, Drudge reporting a Gertz story about terrorists targeting American schools. Makes you wonder just what the authorities do know. They were very quick to lock down the schools in the Montgomery area yesterday.
No, it's not. At any range.
Pakistan.
Or, as a friend of mine in the USMC felicitously put it, "A TC possesses accuracy far beyond what most shooters can reliably achieve".
2) If they know that it is a .22 caliber weapon there are many cartridges that use this bullet besides .223 such as .22-250, 222 Remington, 22 Hornet, .223 Ackley Improved, and others.
3) If they know it is a .223 they have not said why. If they have an intact bullet they could possibly determine bullet type and rifle twist to match to the type of barrel and further reduce the list of rifle types. I doubt they have an intact bullet and only fragments from autopsies which is why they are simply saying .223 which blows into pieces on impact and makes hoorific wounds on thin skilled animals and people.
4) A serious professional would use a silenced weapon from a standoff distance. These people are not using silenced weapons. I would expect an arab terrorist to be the stupid one not using a silenced weapon, but in this case they did not need a silencer to avoid detection and get away.
5) A Mini-14 is not very accurate and even with the best shooter and accurate ammunition can on average shoot a 3" group at 100 yards and would not be the choice for a sniper weapon. It is more likely a bolt action rifle or an AR type configuration of rifle. The shooter is smart enough to only fire one shot so they do not allow a second shot for witnesses to spot their location and provide a physical description. The van sighting may or may not be valid.
6) The choice for Washington D.C. while congress debates Iraq war is interesting. Have the feds received any threats prior to the shooting and are keeping this out of the press? Would Iraq be stupid enough to attempt this and further inflame the Amercian people. They would keep quite and send a silent message the same as they would keep silent on any 911 connection. Are they shooting the Amercian streets up before we shoot up the streets of Bahgdad? Is this domestic terror aimed at implicating arab terror to further tensions? Not enough information yet to know what is the real story.
By killing several people in a "random shooting spree" along with your intened victim, you make it look like the person you want to kill is just one of several random murders. This would hopefully throw the police off track enough that they would never figure out the real motive behind the killings.
I think this tactic was behind one of the over-the-counter medication tampering cases a while back. Someone wanted to murder their spouse, so they poisoned some medicine on store shelves.
Let's make an Estimate of the Situation, folks:
No matter whodunit, we can tell you it was someone who was VERY SERIOUSLY (or VEY SERIESLY, if you prefer) well-trained by someone.
If I were the local police, I'd quickly verify the whereabouts of any known former military tree-eaters or snipers, just to clear them out of the suspect pool.
Pakistan.
And the dominant religion of Pakistan is???
Or some lady sitting on a bus bench...
So we are dealing with levels of possible sound suppression, which may take a .223 from its full sound to the sound of a .22 short, or anywhere in between depending on the sophistcation of the suppressor design. Or indeed the shooter can suppress the muzzle blast by firing from inside a van etc.
In any event, "ear witnesses" may be reporting nothing more than the ever present sonic crack, which is as loud as a .22, and does NOT point to the shooter.
No, if the perp is shooting in daylight in the middle of town, how do they just drive over to another neighborhood in a vehicle/high profile truck, a description that has been reported many times?
Or, he could have just flown in from Yemen, or Lackawanna, and is driving to Chicago or LA or Baltimore.
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