Warren Commission (02 of 26): Hearings Vol. II (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (02 of 26): Hearings Vol. II (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
One can purchase a rifle for less than $13 in many stores in Dallas.
There is no question about that. By using a small portion of that $150,
he could have purchased a rifle absolutely superior to the Italian
carbine at home in Irving in many respects. And there are gun magazines
which have had editorials dwelling on this question, saying that if
Oswald did it with this weapon, and they do not move into the question
of whether or not he did, it was an absolute miracle, because no one
who knew anything about rifles would have chosen such a decrepit,
worthless rifle, as this Italian carbine, manufactured in 1938, for
which there is such pure ammunition. There are a series, I believe, of
editorials in gun magazines proving that Oswald, I think, as a matter
of pride, from a sportsman's viewpoint--that Oswald was in no way
associated with weapons and did not belong in that category, because he
could not have chosen such a weapon.
Representative FORD. Could you give us the citations of one of these
magazines?
Mr. LANE. Yes. One is called Gun Magazine. I do not recall the names.
But that is one of them. I am sure there was such an editorial in that
one. I will get the other one and mail those to you also.
But I think there would have to be a more compelling reason for Oswald
not to go home and get that particular inferior rifle if he decided on
Thursday to kill the President. That was the only rifle in the whole
world probably that could be traced to him. One can purchase a rifle
in almost any community in this country, certainly in Dallas, without
any notoriety attaching to it, without giving one's name or address, or
having a serial number attached to a receipt kept by a store indicating
who owns that particular rifle.
But here we have Oswald going home to get an inferior rifle, which
rifle is the only rifle in the whole world which can be traced to him,
which rifle he is going to leave behind as a calling card after the
assassination is complete.
And so he goes home to Irving, Tex., and he gets this rifle, and
he wraps it up in paper, we are told, and brings it in to the Book
Depository Building.
Now, the rifle can be broken down, I believe, from examining other
Italian carbines. But it would be not much shorter if it was broken
down--perhaps 6 or 7 inches shorter. Evidently, though, he did not do
that.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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