Friday, October 24, 2014

A small matter, perhaps

But flubs like this don’t exactly inspire confidence in the mainstream media. I was listening to the radio on the way home from work yesterday, and some guy at ABC news said that the Ottawa shooter was armed with a Winchester lever-action shotgun.

Now, Winchester did indeed manufacture lever-action shotguns in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but this line was discontinued in 1920 because it couldn’t compete against the far more popular pump-action shotguns. So unless the Ottawa shooter was armed with a very old weapon, he was, in fact, carrying a lever-action rifle.

5 comments:

rinardman said...

I seem to recall hearing a on-the-scene eyewitness claim the jihadi was carrying a shotgun. But I also seem to recall him saying it was a double barrel shotgun.

I blame Joe Biden.

Veeshir said...

Are you sure it wasn't a 22mm, lever action AK-15?

Jonah said...

I'm no expert, but it seems Norinco knocked off a few copies of the 1887 Winchester.

Steve at the Pub said...

Rinardman: That witness seemed observant, lucid and credible.
He had quite an eye for detail.

He musta been a lineman or something, he started by saying he'd been working on a manhole nearby, had a hardhat.

The man said "double barrel shotgun". I believe him. He observed no end of detail.

Someone who wouldn't know a shotgun from an artillery piece woulda called it a "gun", "rifle", "great big nasty gun" or somesuch.

One witness, who kept looking around & barely seemed to know where they were said "he then pulled out a gun, it looked like a single-shot rifle"
I'm not sure this particular witness knew a rifle from a slingshot.

Paco said...

Jonah: There are a couple of companies that make replicas, but I read somewhere else that the rifle used in the shooting was a .30-.30.