Posted on 10/04/2002 12:02:50 PM PDT by Steve0113
Another broad-daylight shooting just occurred, this time in Fredericksburg, VA, just off I-95. It's not even on the news yet.
About an hour's drive south of where the Montgomery County shootings happened, a woman was shot in the parking lot of a Michaels fabric store. My wife was in the store at the time. The victim had left the store and carried her purchases to her minivan. She unlocked the minivan and was loading her stuff into it when she was shot. No sign of the shooter.
No one else was injured.
The woman was taken away in an ambulance, condition unknown. Her license plate (which I'm not going to post) indicated that she had several children.
Three versions of the Abrams tank are currently in service the original M1 model, dating from the early 1980s, and two newer versions, designated M1A1 and M1A2. The M1A1 series, produced from 1985 through 1993, (from your link)
The M1A1/2 Abrams main battle tank is manufactured by General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS). The first M1 tank was produced in 1978, the M1A1 in 1985 and the M1A2 in 1986. 3,273 M1 tanks were produced for the US Army. 4,796 M1A1 tanks were built for the US Army, 221 for the US Marines and 555 co-produced with Egypt. 77 M1A2 tanks have been built for the US Army, 315 for Saudi Arabia and 218 for Kuwait. For the M1A2 Upgrade Program, 1079 M1 Abrams tanks are being upgraded to M1A2 configuration. (from my link)
I'm not so sure that some of the M1A1 didn't go to the Gulf. First of all, I was told by the line monitor that they were going to the ME. I worked at this place 1985-1987.
There are or were some bad ones that got through. I kept trying to get the line lead to do something about the problems. Nothing. I tried telling the foreman. Nothing. I even told one of the owners of the company. Nothing.
The problems ranged from people not using the proper braidind (weight and length), not using shill tape, connectors not being properly torqued, and too few being tested for water submersion, and those that were tested, always failed. The guy that did that job told me he never had one pass. Some idiots were even using scotch tape on the wires....
After the tank episode and being told I was a troublemaker and had a poor work attitude, I demanded to be put on another line. While on the new line I got to hear about other jobs that were 'failing'. One of the expeditors quit because she knew they were shipping bad stuff, and after fighting with the company over it, refused to ship them and quit.
Hopefully as you say, we are using the newest!
I shoot sillhouettes regularly. We use handguns out to 200 meters (or yards, depending on the firing range used), and while I am about a 10% shooter at that range (revolver, open sights or with scope, not much difference for me), others are downright deadly with their TC and XP100 race guns.
The black powder cartridge boys use those "quigly-down-under" style rifles, open sights, out to 500 meters, and even with a 20-30 foot drop in the bullet path, they tip them over easily. Some of the pistol shooters compete equally well at those ranges, usually with something like a 7mmTCU or something similar.
A silencer slows the expansion of the hot gasses so as to muffle the sound of the shot itself, but if the bullet is supersonic it will still crack with a sonic boom. In the case of the unfortunate (or somewhat fortunate, as the case may be) lady who survived, I don't see how they can say that it was not a rifle round, although it could have been slowed down to subsonic velocity (I doubt it though).
My experience with 10mm and 9mm pistol ammo is that after 100 yards, assuming you were still on target, you have lost too much velocity to do much good. Most of the common pistol stuff behaves similarly, until you get into the hot 357s, 44 mags, etc. Now, a 454 or 45 win mag, or some of the off-the-wall stuff like a 38 Casull might be effective, it would be an unlikely choice for a marksman. That is based on limited hunting and blowing-up-cinder-blocks and the like, so take it for what its worth.
My gut tells me that this was done using a 22-250 or 220 swift, not a 223 or 222, but if the LEOs were just speculating and had not recovered an intact bullet, it could have been something like a 6mm PPC or some other benchrester round known for accuracy. Heck, it could be an ugly old 243 from walmart. Point is, there are dozens of combos that could have been used, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the method or motivation, from a criminal profiling perspective.
Bullet Weight: 55grs.
Muzzle Velocity: 3240 fps
Muzzle Energy: 1282 ft-lbs
The data is from Haas' Guide to Small Arms Ammunition
Whole thing is spooky! I got an email yesterday from my sister. The email was one of those forwarded types warning you about something. Well, this one was warning people about certain stores. Target, Meijer and Wal-Mart. Said that ethnic men (whatever that means), were approaching people and asking them if they would smell some new perfume or some such. It warned that the perfume was really ether. Another warned of a man approaching a woman and asking if that were her vehicle. Said that she noticed a gun in the man's wasitband and she screamed and people ran to her aid, and that the police were called.
Well, the police that were called were from my city, so, I called the police and asked if this incident really occured. I was told "NO, that it was totally bogus".
The thing about the email that caught my eye though was that the store where the police were called is located about 20 yds from the freeway.
WHAT on EARTH does "normal people" mean??
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