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In reply to the discussion: I just don't get why people can't accept that a punk-ass loser killed JFK [View all]Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)In fresh tests of the Mannlicher-Carcano bolt-action weapon, supervised by the Italian army, it was found to be impossible for even an accomplished marksman to fire the shots quickly enough.
But when the Italian team test-fired the identical model of gun, they were unable to load and fire three shots in less than 19 seconds - suggesting that a second gunman must have been present in Dealey Plaza, central Dallas, that day.
Two of the bullets hit Kennedy, with the first - the so called "magic bullet", ridiculed by conspiracy theorists - also wounding the governor of Texas, John B Connally, after it had struck the president.
In a further challenge to the official conclusions, the Italian team conducted two other tests at the former Carcano factory in Terni, north of Rome, where the murder weapon was made in 1940.
They fired bullets through two large pieces of meat, in an attempt to simulate the assumed path of the magic bullet. In their test, the bullet was deformed, unlike the first bullet in the Kennedy assassination, which remained largely intact.
The second bullet is thought to have missed its target. According to the commission, the third disintegrated when it hit Kennedy's head. The new research suggests, however, that this is incompatible with the fact that Oswald was only 80 yards away, in a book depository, when he fired. The Italian tests suggest that a bullet fired from that distance would have emerged intact from Kennedy's head, implying that the third shot must instead have come from a more distant location.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1556184/Oswald-had-no-time-to-fire-all-Kennedy-bullets.html
The reason I knew that Oswald could not have done it, was because I could not have done it, said former US Marine sniper, Craig Roberts. Credited with numerous kills while serving in Vietnam , Roberts turned an objective eye on the shot heard round the world. After he visited Dealey Plaza, after viewing the so-called snipers lair, on the sixth floor of the book depository, and after staring at the large oak tree overspreading much of Elm Street, Roberts said, I walked away from the window in disgust. I had seen all I needed to know that Oswald could not have been the lone shooter.
But Roberts, a retired police investigator, wanted to know what did happen. Not content to dismiss the improbable feat, he delved into the crime from every angle.
First, I analyzed the scene as a sniper . . . I looked at the engagement angles. It was entirely wrong
Here, from what I could see, three problems arose that would influence my shots. First, the target was moving away at a drastic angle to the right from the window, meaning that I would have to position my body to compete with the wall and a set of vertical water pipes . . . This would be extremely difficult for a right-handed shooter. Second, I would have to be ready to fire exactly when the target emerged past some tree branches that obscured the kill zone. Finally, I would have to deal with two factors at the same time; the curve of the street, and the high-to-low angle formulaa law of physics Oswald would not have known.
Not content with his own critical appraisal, Roberts turned to another, equally knowledgeable shooter. According to my friend, Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock, the former senior instructor for the US Marine Corps Sniper Instructor School at Quantico, Virginia, it could not be done as described by the FBI investigators.
Let me tell you what we did at Quantico, Hathcock recalls. We reconstructed the whole thing: the angle, the range, the moving target, the time limit, the obstacles, everything. I dont know how many times we tried it, but we couldnt duplicate what the Warren Commission said Oswald did. Now if I cant do it, how in the world could a guy who was a non-qual on the rifle range and later only qualified 'marksman' do it?
Of course, sergeant Carlos Hathcock was only the most famous American military sniper in history, credited with a confirmed 93 kills. But apologists for a lone assassin, who continue to enjoy mainstream media sponsorship 40 years later, continue to argue that an average shooter like Oswald, using a decrepit, war surplus weapon, could have killed Kennedy. Case closed."
http://oswald-not-guilty.blogspot.dk/2009/10/oswald-not-guilty-famed-sniper-says.html
Also from a Vietnam Army sniper:
http://www.riflewarrior.com/case_of_the_impossible_shots.htm