A Gun Dealer's Take on Kirk Assassination

My afternoon with a gun dealer, rifle aficionado, and former military trauma surgeon.

I spent the afternoon at my favorite gun shop in Dallas, which deals weapons from all nations and eras. The senior salesman—a former military trauma surgeon—is himself a gun collector. In his own words, he “is obsessed with rifles.”

He too has been closely following the flow of information about the Charlie Kirk assassination, and he shared the following observations with me.

THE RIFLE

The rifle purportedly found in a wooded area near the campus and photographed is the following:

A “Sportlerized” Military Mauser action hunting rifle.

• Probably a stainless steel barrel.

• Apparently a grey synthetic stock, probably made by Bell and Carlson in the 1980s or 1990s. Alternatively, it could be a “sand-coated and painted” wooden stock.

• “Short Mag” scope. The slightly unusual back mounting—necessitated on this rifle because of the scope’s short length—would NOT necessarily affect the shooting performance, depending on shooter’s style.

• Barrel probably 22 or 24 inches long.

• A similar weapon in the store has a 24 inch barrel and weighs 9 pounds 4 ounces.

• The rifle in the photograph is a cheap weapon, probably worth around $400, but certainly capable of shooting very accurately.

• NOT possible to rapidly break down this kind of rifle. Breaking it down requires unscrewing two screws to remove barrel from stock. Disassembling the rifle results in multiple parts coming loose.

• Shooter may have brought a screwdriver to scene with the thought of making on site scope adjustments.

• Does NOT appear that the figure videotaped on the roof and dropping from the roof is carrying this kind of rifle.

• However, it is possible that the figure on the roof tossed this kind of rifle from the roof onto the ground in a different place before he was captured by the video camera.

• NOT clear what exactly the figure is toting when he jumps off the roof.

• Video of shooting indicates that Charlie was shot directly in the neck, though the shooter may have been aiming for the head or chest.

• Upon being shot, Charlie reacts with a decorticate posture—that is, an abnormal body posture characterized by flexion of the upper limbs—caused by severe trauma to the central nervous system.

• In Charlie’s case, the bullet or shockwave from the supersonic (2,500 feet per second at range of 200 yards) bullet caused massive trauma to his cervical spinal cord.

• If the bullet was a soft-pointed hunting round, it could have fragmented when it struck him.

• Bullet or fragments thereof likely passed through his neck and struck the objects behind him. If the bullet struck concrete or steel, it likely disintegrated.

• Difficult to form an opinion of the bullet caliber from viewing the low resolution video. Enormous kinetic energy of bullet causes deformation of soft tissue. High arterial bleeding pressure likely altered the entrance wound diameter that is visible in the video.

  

  Alleged Murder Weapon

  

  Same kind of rifle

  

  Back disassembly screw

  

  Forward disassembly screw

  ADDITIONAL NOTES

• According to an informant the gun dealer considers reliable, the photograph of the rifle released to the press was NOT authorized by the FBI, and is NOT a forensic photograph, but a clandestine photo snapped by someone at the scene, hence its poor quality.

• According to sources the gun dealer considers reliable, Charlie had a history of traveling with light security, so it is hard to rule out the possibility that he simply didn’t have the personnel with him to cover the roof.

• The hand signals of the security guards flanking him could have been directed at other security personnel posted around the perimeter.

• Investigators should ask if campus security gave Charlie’s security detail the impression that the building and roof used by the shooter had been secured by campus security.

• The event was announced well in advance, thereby enabling a shooter to familiarize himself with the building and gauge the distance from the roof to the amphitheater.

• It’s possible the shooter took pains to flee with the weapon because he was afraid that, if found, it would be traced to him or someone in his family.

• The gun dealer senses that many young men of the shooter’s generation—raised on first-person shooter video games—have fantasy lives that are very difficult for pre internet generations to understand. It is therefore difficult for sane adults to make plausible inferences about their thought processes and decision making.

• We need to know a LOT more information before we can draw any firm conclusions about the crime.