Saturday, July 09, 2016

Rifle used in Dallas Ambush was a common SKS; not Assault Rifle or "Assault Weapon"

SKS rifle from wikipedia


The rifle used by the Dallas sniper was an antique East Block rifle designed in the 1940's, an SKS.  The SKS was considered obsolete by the Soviet military in 1956, 60 years ago.  It is a simple semi-automatic design that does not use detachable magazines and holds 10 rounds of ammunition. It uses the intermediate powered 7.62 x 39 cartridge, about as powerful as the .30-30, a common deer cartridge in the United States for a hundred and twenty years.  From nbcnews.com
Dallas police said Friday that detectives found bomb making materials, ballistic vests, rifles, ammunition and "a personal journal of combat tactics" in Johnson's home. Johnson used a SKS rifle and a handgun in the attack, multiple law enforcement sources told NBC News.
The SKS was imported to the U.S. by the millions as surplus from Russia, China, and other former East Block countries. Billions of rounds of ammunition were imported.

When relations with first China, then the former East Block countries were normalized,  trade deals were struck.  U.S. consumers got sturdy and simple utility rifles and inexpensive ammunition. China and the former East block got billions of desperately needed dollars.

The SKS is a reliable multi-purpose rifle that is used for hunting across the United States. In the law, it is treated the same as other rifles, even in the extremely restrictive state of California.

The rifle has a wood stock, no pistol grip, is not black, does not have a muzzle brake, or a threaded barrel.  None of those things change the basic effectiveness of the rifle very much. 

It is not the rifle, but the man that makes the greatest difference.  Any hunting rifle could have been used to about the same effect by the Dallas sniper.  Designs from the 1880's would have been as effective for the tactics employed.

He used basic military tactics and skills.  Those skills are known to tens of millions of Americans.  The military tactics can be leaned in a couple of weekends.

Marksmanship may take a little longer, but can be learned with a simple air rifle.  The Chinese use air rifles to teach their school children the marksmanship skills required.  Those air rifles are cheap, and have been imported into the United States in large numbers.

Only one sniper caused the damage in Dallas.  From kolotv.com:
Authorities initially blamed multiple "snipers" for Thursday's attack, and at one point said three suspects were in custody. But by Thursday afternoon, all attention focused on Johnson, and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the entire attack appeared to be the work of a single gunman.
A Texas law enforcement official identified the man killed in the parking garage as Johnson. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he said he was not authorized to release the information.
None of the legislation contemplated by Congress would have had the slightest difference on the outcome in Dallas. Attorney General Loretta Lynch made remarks at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time yesterday.    From time.com:

And we must take a hard look at the ease with which wrongdoers can get their hands on deadly weapons and the frequency with which they use them.
Rifles are the least used firearms in homicides.  Hands and feet are used twice as often as rifles are.  There are about a hundred and thirty million rifles in private hands in the United States.  The most common type of rifle is the semi-automatic. From the FBI UCR for 2014:

Murders committed with rifles :                          248

Murders committed with (hands,fists,feet,etc.)   660

Murders committed with handguns:                  5,562

Legislation involving guns is not the answer to these sort of attacks.  Stopping the false narrative that police are the enemy is.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch


7 comments:

Wireless.Phil said...

Yes, news said an assault weapon.
When they say that anymore, I just ignore them.
They still think quarter sized hail is the size of Softballs when it clearly shows a hand holding 4 or 5 of them which could be possible with softballs.

Anonymous said...

Black panther party, SKS, black man saying out loud he wanted to kill white people, especially cops, honorable discharge, and a trade skill taught making him easily a marketable worker making decent loot.

EVERY excuse within the media's narrative is utterly destroyed here. Absolutely each and every talking point they present daily and during each election cycle just got nuked worse than Japan.

It seems to me that it is less and less likely that this fella acted alone, even as a single shooter among a group causing distractions.

And as for "military tactics" being so "dangerous", well then maybe we should stop TEACHING those tactics to Muslims abroad.....just sayin.

Every progressive democrat point of order is destroyed here. So I gotta ask the Fudds, what is your excuse for voting for Democrats for ANYTHING now? Hmmmm? Are you ready to admit you really don't care about guns, that you are really OK with bans, and that you just acted Fudd all along trying to con others into setting guns aside as a voting issue?

So to all you who talk of background checks right now oh and gun show loophole.....yeah you are utter failures and outright liars. Background checks for pencils now and books? Oh and gunshow loophole is REALLY just two citizens selling and buying PROPERTY that you want government to CONTROL - so just ADMIT IT, losers.

Anonymous said...

Some SMS rifles have been modified to accept removable magazines. Do we know that he used a fixed-magazine one?

Anonymous said...

If the in pictures in the Daily Mail article can be believed, the rifle he used was indeed modified to accept removable magazines: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3683606/Have-photos-dead-body-Dallas-sniper-leaked-Images-posted-online-appear-cop-killer-Micah-Johnson-moments-taken-police-robot.html

Dean Weingarten said...

No, we do not know for certain yet. Eventually we should get a picture of the rifle.

Anonymous said...

sofrep.com is reporting the gun used was a Saiga AK-74 style semiautomatic rifle.

https://sofrep.com/58811/photo-saiga-rifle-used-dallas-shooting/

Anonymous said...

What is interesting to me is the picture posted in this article and the people that want to call every weapon that shots more than two rounds and assault weapon. the pictured weapon is by any standard specifically designed to be an assault weapon. How many deer rifle come with a built in bayonet. truly it makes no difference whether it is stripper clip fed or magazine fed. the SKS was designed to be the ultimate assault weapon of its day. they still make darned good deer rifles. Task determines use and definition not looks. the same as a hammer, drive a nail or crack a skull.