Posted on 10/18/2002 6:28:58 PM PDT by Shermy
WLWT Eyewitness News 5's Sheree Paolello set out to prove that the Washington, D.C., sniper doesn't necessarily need to be an expert marksman.
Many people think the sniper must have a military background or police training, but with minimal training and no prior shooting experience, Paolello was hitting the center of a target in less than one hour.
At 5 p.m. Thursday, Paolello and Joe Blanco, the owner of Target World, traveled to a farm in New Richmond and set up a firing range. Blanco spent 10 years in the military and is a qualified expert in all U.S. Army firearms, Paolello reported.
"It just doesn't take very much thought to look through a scope, align cross hairs and pull the trigger. And we're going to find that out," Blacno said at the beginning of Paolello's training.
Blanco set up a shooting scenario as similar as possible to the Washington, D.C., shootings.
"These shots are being taken within very close ranges," he said.
"It is not known what type of weapon the sniper is using or if the sniper is using the same weapon each time, so Blanco picked one he thinks is similar.
"The more accurate firearms are going to be bolt-action instead of semi-automatic so this is a bolt action in .223 caliber," he said.
Just 35 minutes after setting up the firing range, Paolello -- having picked up a gun only twice before in her life -- kneeled to take her first shot.
It passed through the center of the target.
"That's how easy it is," Blanco said.
After three shots through the bulls eye, Paolello moved on to a harder target: two quarters taped side-by-side to a target. She fired six shots at the quarters and hit both; one shot went right through the center of one of the quarters.
The time: 6:10 p.m., less than one hour after Paolello first pulled the trigger.
Her experience proved Blanco's theory that the D.C. sniper may not be a sniper at all.
"I would be surprised if he's military trained," Blanco said. "If he is, he's very sloppy. He's shot 11 people and only killed nine. I don't mean that to sound bad, but a sniper wouldn't have missed."
Stay tuned to WLWT Eyewitness News 5 and ChannelCincinnati.com for updates on the sniper shootings.
We need to ban ALL guns because someone might use one to shoot someone else, right?
Looks like simplistic reporting.
Ms. Paolello admits in the article that there was "training" from Mr. Blanco, and the average person does not have free access to a firearms expert like Mr. Blanco to provide coaching.
The reporter seems to want to convey the impression that Joe Sixpack walking down the street could -- having never touched a gun before -- find a rifle lying on the ground, pick it up and suddenly be transformed into an expert sniper.
She'll be the cocktail party expert on all things ballistic, now.
Five CM hits with a 2" snubby from 15 yds....and wifey looks at me and says, "Is that all there is? Can I go now?"
So I start throwing stones at her and tell her to try for the same accuracy under stress....and she gives me 'the look'.
Cobra...
I think that points to planning more than training.
There is definitely something to "beginners luck" where firearms are involved. I've often witnessed new shooters crank out spectacular groups, with very little training, only to see them unable to repeat the performance later, after they've learned more about what's happening.
Consistency is usually the indicator of true shooting skill, and the ability to instinctively call the shot.
As far as female shooters go, women tend to have fewer preconceptions about "how to shoot", so they listen more intently to instructions and often make better beginning shooters than men.
The point is, we don't need to be casting aspersions on the military. It doesn't take military training to do what this murderer has done.
It befuddles me how ignorant the news media is about firearms. Perhaps if some of them actually took some firearm training, they wouldn't be pi$$ing their pants in fear of guns!
Hey, look at it this way: if she plays her cards right, maybe she can persuade her editor to finance her hunting license so she can go out and get some venison! We just may have a convert in the making!
Almost anyone who has shot more than 100 rounds through a high-powered rifle could teach a novice to hit a melon-sized target at 100 yards, within an hour.
Her choice of instructor simply gave her a slight edge.
And a sniper wouldn't have gut shot that boy. I think that particular incident was a copycat/nutcase.
It also makes the point that single-shot, bolt action weapons are mroe accurate than the "assualt" weapons the Democrats automatically blame, and seek to outlaw, with -- again -- no clue as to the different characteristics.
I hope, if this killer shows up again, that an armed citizen with a .45 puts a couple slugs into the get-away van. A white van may be a dime a dozen, but a white van with a couple bullet holes in its side would be unique. Even Chief Moose and his Keystone Kops would be able to find that.
Congressman Billybob
This clown is no sniper, he's simply a shooter. He's as different from a sniper as a jack-lighting poacher is from a hunter.
This killer is not low crawling across a parking lot. He drives up, notices there is no one else in the parking lot except one or two people, shoots and drives away. He already had the advantage of one truck leaving the scene at a high rate of speed because they didn't want to get involved, one witness lying for the reward and an unarmed populace that can only call 911.
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