[Ouderkirk]

If you go to Dallas, you will be surprised at how close quarters the area where JFK was shot really is.

I’m no marksman, but reasonablely capable with a rifle. I can guarantee you that I would have hit the target at least once at that close range and more than likely twice in the time alotted. Three times...uh, maybe not, BUt I can immagine if you were motivated you might be able to make it happen.

[ladyjane]

I’ve been to Dallas. I have stood by the window that Oswald supposedly used. If he hung out the window two feet, maybe...he might have been able to get two shots off.

[MplsSteve]

I truly believe that you could make that shot.

However, Oswald was a less than stellar shot while in the Marines. The rifle in question was not sighted properly. And lastly, it would have been hard to get off that many high-accuracy shots with that rifle in that short of time.

I’m inclined to go with the multiple shooter scenario. I just don’t see Oswald as being one of the shooters.

[boop]

"If you go to Dallas, you will be surprised at how close quarters the area where JFK was shot really is."

This is the money quote. I used to believe in a conspiracy, but once I saw Dealy Plaza I knew it was garbage. No way some guy is in the Grassy Knoll. He would have been nailed in about 3 seconds. I realize it was a train yard in 1963, but there would have been hundreds of people there instantly. Three, maybe 4 shots from Oswald, with echoing and you get the illusion of a spray of bullets. Plus as Posner pointed out in Case Closed, that when Connally turned his body to the right, the bullet path becomes perfectly straight, not "magically" changing position. It's fun to think about a conspiracy, but a waste of time.

[Iwo Jima]

I can guarantee you that I would have hit the target at least once at that close range.

Then why has no one ever been able to duplicate that shot?

Read "Kill Zone" by Craig Roberts. He is a police detective and sniper in Vietnam and civilian life who was in Dallas for a seminar just down the street from Dealey Plaza. He had always accepted the findings of the Warren Commission.

He had some time on his hands, walked down to Dealey Plaza, went up to the "sniper's nest" in the school book depository/museum, and his world fell apart. This was before they put an acrylic wall around the "sniper's nest."

He knew that neither he nor anyone he had ever known could have made that shot. Certainly, Oswald could not have made it with his POS rifle.

It has far more to do with the steep downward angle of a target moving away from you than with distance.

[Shooter 2.5]

[First shot starts the clock]
Rechamber.
Fire.
Rechamber.
Fire.
Rechamber.
Fire.

You can’t do that in 8.3 seconds?
Marksman is the lowest ranking below Sharpshooter. Expert is above Sharpshooter.