Mom had a 50 caliber Henry? (per CNN)

[Whovian]

That's not a typical weapon someone looking for defense would buy. That's the type a kid might buy after watching a movie.

[sandyshoes17]

1. They have been saying

she was an avid gun collector. She went to ranges and taught her sons to shoot.

[JohnnyRingo]

2. That's an antique collector gun.

Don't let the fifty caliber fool you into thinking it's a modern killing machine.

Here's an old Henry Rifle owned by one of my favorite TV hostesses:

[Posteritatis]

9. Yeah, the caliber stops meaning quite as much once you're out of the twentieth century

A Brown Bess was, what, .75 caliber or so?

[slackmaster]

3. That's a very expensive rifle that would be bought by a serious collector or target shooter

If it was an ORIGINAL Henry it would be worth a whole lot of money.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

11. Wondering if it was a reproduction

Pretty common, many imported.

[alcibiades_mystery]

15. She was receiving $250,000 a year in alimony

So, wouldn't be surprised.

[Lizzie Poppet]

4. A Henry is an Old West era lever-action rifle.

They look like this:


To the best of my knowledge, neither the originals or modern replicas are chambered for any .50 caliber cartridges. The originals were chambered for .44 Henry rimfire, a rather weak round by modern standards. Most modern replicas are chambered for .44-40 Winchester or .45 Long Cole (pistol rounds).

It's kind of hard to know what most media outlets are actually talking about when they mention firearms. They tend to get technical things really wrong a lot.

[slackmaster]

5. I have a Martini-Henry

Not at all the same thing, just a data point.

[Posteritatis]

6. Meh, looks just like an AK-47 to me!

*ducks and runs, giggling while dodging thrown objects*

[Lizzie Poppet]

8. Here's a handy chart for ID'ing guns:

[Posteritatis]

10. The car always cracks me up. (nt)

[OldDem2012]

16. Ha! First laugh I've had in a couple of days! Thanks! nt.

[JohnnyRingo]

24. Hahahaha

Funny because it's true that media personalities in general know little about firearms, but that doesn't stop them from talking about them. It's all about the image they want to impress upon viewers.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Or a collector

I would not mind a Henry for the wall. It is also fairly accurate, even today, for hunting. Hell, a Winchester, the next gun in the series, is a great hunting riffle.

She was a collector.

For the record, the only Henry I have ever seen have been reproductions that a friend of ours uses in civil war recreations.

[Edweird]

12. She needed it to compensate for the size of her penis. Being a teacher, she knew that.

[Squinch]

27. She wasn't a teacher.

[FarCenter]

13. Henry rifles were made in New Haven, CT.

[Edweird]

14. You just can't handle the fact that a female teacher owned and enjoyed shooting guns

can you? Here's the real kicker: she's far from being the only one.

[former-republican]

17. Yikes!!!!!!!!!!

What did she want to do " shoot down helicopters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Posteritatis]

19. Not that likely with a mid-nineteenth-century rifle. (nt)

[former-republican]

20. Stop using logic

We are talking guns here.

[Posteritatis]

22. D'oh. Sorry.

Ahem.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. There were no helicopters in the civil war

This is a civil war riffle. The 50 caliber is the caliber not the actual power. The Henry had good penetration for the age, it was the first lever action, why the Rebs used to joke, you could load it on Monday and shoot it all week but was a northern weapon used by mounted formations capable of rapid fire when compared to the muzzle loaders of the Confederacy.

The photo of Rachel using it is the actual gun. These days it make a fine hunting riffle.

[dionysus]

30. a riffle is a rocky shoal or sandbar lying just below the surface of a waterway. are you talking

about a rifle perchance?

sweet jesus if you want to be taken seriously about firearms spell "rifle" correctly, please...

[DevonRex]

31. oh my

I thought ripple at first glance. Kept trying to figure out what a civil war ripple was. Ice cream? A drink? The ripples of violence still rippling? Lo and behold it was a rifle all along.

Hey I'm on my nexus 7! So cool.

[dionysus]

32. the rebels used to lure the union soldiers down to the killing riffles. while their horses

were trapped in the deadly riffle, they were cut to ribbons with cannon fire.

does the nexus have an app for the cruise missile console?

[DevonRex]

34. I control the universe

with my Nexus 7.

[malaise]

18. Apparently the mom also took her kids to the range

Ah well

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. If you have guns at home and children, old enough, like

Eight or above, it's a good idea to take them to the range and teach them gun safety and what to do around them...Adam was a broken young man, but I will not fault mom for familiarizing them with guns.

That in fact, is a recommendation from even my local PD, to have gun locks, but teach gun familiarization and safety to mature children. It takes, most of the time, the aura of mystery away and prevents accidents. Tom was a cop, if we had kids, of eight to ten, we'd be going to the range regularly and they would become very familiar with those guns.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

25. Collected guns and taught her sons how to kill... you really do reap what you sow. nt

[godai]

26. Sad but true.n/t

[tularetom]

28. I'm pretty sure the original Henry rifles were not produced in .50 caliber

I have two antique .50 caliber rifles but they are muzzle loaders and not cartridge guns. Consequently they would be next to worthless as a home defense firearm.

As far as I know, the original Henry's were rimfire .44 caliber.

They were superseded by the 1866 Winchester (known as Yellowboy because of its brass frame). The Henry's front loading magazine proved difficult to use under combat conditions so it did not see wide use during the Civil War. Nevertheless it was the model for a long line of Winchester and Marlin lever guns including the famous Winchester 94, which only stopped production a few years ago.

[malaise]

29. What if he killed her to get to her weapons?

[bettyellen]

33. it would seem that way, since he first tried to purchase one.

maybe they were all locked up away except for one she left handy.