[Lloyd227]

"To my untrained eye, it doesn't look like a specialized "sniper" rifle. "

Well, I know that the distance these shots were taken at are perfectly reasonable distances for just about ANY .223 rifle ever made.

While I have no way to know if THIS is in face THE rifle used, there's no need to expect to see something special. These shots were nothing that anyone couldn't make with 15 minutes of training

[Anotherpundit]

bushmaster is just a brand name for a manufacturer of ar-15's.

[Chad Fairbanks]

I am the BushMaster!!!!


(oops... sorry... wrong thread...)

[Shaka]

No..not from what I've heard from reports. It's the XM series...probably a 20" inch barrel. They also said it was an M4A3 model..which does not look like the rifle you have posted. AR owners call it a Bushy shorty :))

You've posted a "Match" rifle...

Did I mention it was MUSLIM that did the killing?? This is where the focus should be..

[justlurking]

Bushmaster is a brand-name. They make semi-auto clones of the AR-15. They look similar to the picture that you posted.

They have many models, in a number of different configurations. There are a wide variety of after-market accessories to customize the rifle.

The main thing to note is that it looks like an "assault weapon", although every new rifle sold to consumers by Bushmaster (and others) do not meet that legal criteria in federal law. However, if a flash suppressor was added (as has been reported), that may tip it into violating that law.

[Billthedrill]

Well, a couple of things occur - that picture is only one of many Bushmaster configurations. Almost all of these are .223 (5.56 mm) and they are similar in design and function to the military's M16 except that they are semiautomatic only.

It IS NOT a sniper rifle by most definitions. Its ideal range is within 300 meters, although it will certainly kill out to 800 in skilled hands. But most military sniper rifles are larger in caliber (and higher-powered) because heavier bullets tend to retain more of their energy further downrange than lighter (62-gr in most military issue these days, 55-gr originally, and that's still the most popular civilian distribution) bullets.

The model pictured has a rather large scope and a bipod, which put it in a longer-range configuration in terms of target acquisition but it doesn't shoot any further or any more accurately because of that. Personally I don't see a bipod on a rifle like that because of weight and I don't use a scope that large because lower-power scopes are faster in acquisition and perfectly adequate for normal engagement ranges for that caliber. Just IMHO. The Bushmaster's a fine piece but it ain't no Buck Rogers deathray.

[colorado tanker]

The guy was an engineer; he was not spec ops or a sniper. He made E-5 in 17 years, so he was not a high candlepower trooper. He just bought the civilian version of the weapon he qualified on. He wasn't making difficult shots.

But you can already see the way the presstitutes are going to play this. It won't be an anti-social Farrakhan supporting extreme muslim who cheered September 11. It's going to be a crazed Persian Gulf veteran who got his hands on a military assault rifle because of those dastardly Republicans blocking gun control.

[The Wizard]

sounds like this was the page he saw before he bought the rifle...it's like an advertisement for what he did

[Tacis]

I'm sure you meant, "Is this the EVIL gun?"

After all, a poor black muslim man, likely a fairy, with mental problems caused by his military service in the EVIL Gulf War who was shooting other people of color out of hate for them, simply couldn't be responsible for the murders. It was the EVIL gun that killed these people. His illegal alien underage friend simply couldn't be involved, either. It was the gun that did it!! And, we have to do something about such guns so this never happens again!!

Could the media or leftists ever have envisioned a worse possible killer? They wanted, they expected, they required a white, Christian, right-wing killer who belonged to the Republican party and the NRA and had a swastika tatooed on one shoulder and "God bless Ronald Reagan" on the other. How can they live with this? How can they continue to cover what they have so long avoided? Black perps are seldom covered. Fairy perps, never. Jamaicans? Hell, they are all down in Florida voting for democrats. Illegal Jamaicans are never covered. No, it was the EVIL gun!!

[dc-zoo]

Maybe its a "bellafonte special".. A "Master Bush".

[LibWhacker]

Right, it's just an AR-15 (the civilian version of the M-16). There are several manufacturers of this gun. Bushmaster is just one of them. Your pic is of a Bushmaster with some added bells and whistles: scope, tripod, and perhaps a bull-barrel (a heavier barrel for long range shooting). If you just walked into a gun shop and said you wanted a Bushmaster AR-15, you'd probably be handed something that looked a little more like this (i.e., without all the bells and whistles):

[Young Werther]

Bushmaster rifle? President Bush? A connection?

Don't the Demonscraft wish!

55 in Senate and and 223 in the house! Go "Pubs"!!!

[IronJack]

I do not believe that is the Bushmaster in question. I have a Bushmaster AR-15, and it is to all practical appearances, a copy of the Army's M-16. There ARE differences, but they are mostly cosmetic, and not readily apparent to the novice.

[Tacis]

Yo, gun experts!

The media is beginning to talk about how the car was specially fitted out so the sniper could lie prone with the trunk lid shut and fire through a hole in the metal of the car.

It has been a while since I fired an M-1, but it just seems to me that a round fired in such a confined space would cause an awful lot of noise, shock and recoil.

Any comments? Is such a set up plausable?

[45Auto]

Why, exactly, should it matter what gun the bastard used? In California no one can legally buy a Bushmaster or any of the other dozen or so AR clones on the market. Even if one could buy one, there is the ten day waiting period, the background check, the ID check and the written personal check that must be handed over. On top of that, anyone who had one of those "dreaded black rifles" before the Cal ban, would have had to register it with the damn commie Cal government (so that the nitwit tyrant piss-ants can confiscate them at a later date) if one didn't want to become an ex post facto felon.

So, to repeat, why the hell does the tool matter? Better to ask if this a**hole and his little companion have any connection to the rest of the raghead terrorists, or if the Nation of Islam condones and perhaps even teaches its members to hate America? I sure would like to know the answer to those questions.

[45Auto]

I remember a little incident that happened not ten minutes from where I work on the Stanford University campus. A disgruntled graduate student used a hammer to kill his math professor. I didn't hear any moron squawking about banning hammers. In fact, I just went by my local hardware the other day and there was the exact make and model of hammer the jerk used. I bought one with no hassle at all. Nobody asked me to fill out any forms or to undergo a background check. I just forked over my ten bucks and walked out with it. If I had used that hammer to whack my old lady, do you think anybody would call for a ban on hammers, or that somebody ought to sue the hammer manufacturer? In the wrong hands, a hammer can (and was) be very dangerous.

[45Auto]

Farrakhan spews forth a lot of 'hate speech' that no one inthe press gives a dman about. Its not suprising that some of his followers might be tempted to act on his vitriol.

"They call them [Hezbollah] terrorists, I call them freedom fighters...No one asks why they would do such a thing. Why would they do such a thing? What has driven them to this point? That's what the UN, the U.S. and Europe doesn't want to deal with because the Zionists have control in England, in Europe, in the United States and around the world."

Louis Farrakhan, Speech at the District Council 33 Union Hall, Philadelphia, PA, 4/22/96

[Sungirl]

How can you miss your target using that rifle?

I want one.

[Jeff Gordon]

Bushmaster sells many variations of the basic AR15 type rifle. They make a very good rifle. I own several. Their web site is www.bushmaster.com (of course).