Lee Harvey

I'm low on fodder, and had planned this one for the future, but heck the "50 years ago..." thingies are already coming out on this.

From the back of my mind, a question nagged, but is quickly dismissed.

Why did former US Marine Lee Oswald buy a crappy Aye-Tie Carcano through the mail order supply house?  There was plenty of surplus rifles on the market.  Even what he trained with, the M1 Garand.  You'd think almost anything else would be a better choice for his intended plan.

So, without looking it up online, I considered...  Well, he's a commie with a low paying city-gov't job, and Garands are cheap but there is much cheaper in the 1962 milsurp options.  And if he wanted to use a scope, well, the Garand isn't set up for scope.  Oh, and I assumed he trained on a Garand since the M14 wasn't really online til 1960 or so, and I didn't think he'd have been in the USMC at that late date.  So the questions that remain are things like: are there cheaper but better scopable rifles available for Lee and if so, why did he choose what many consider the worst option?

Lemme see what wiki says about Oswald...  No insight as to why except maybe a Carcano could be easier to conceal.

[Wait a second...  This is just like that movie I reviewed.  Oswald used a revolver to kill Officer Tippit and they found cases at the scene.  "Numerous witnesses heard the shots and saw Oswald flee the scene holding a revolver, nine positively identified him as the man who shot Tippit and fled. Four cartridge cases found at the scene were identified by expert witnesses."  Who the hell dumps shells at a crime scene?  Gah!  No wonder there are so many conspiracy theories.]

Anyway, it was reported that Oswald liked prerusing shooting magazines, and bought the Italian carbine in March of 1963.  Here is a copy of the 1963 Guns Magazine issue that Oswald might have read when making up his mind what to get from a sporting goods store and.. WHAT ho, on page 7 is an ad for Klein's Sporting goods, the very same catalog house.  Well, a .30-06 US Model 1917 rifle costs $29.88.  A 4x scope costs $19.88 separately.  You can buy that rifle with the scope already mounted for $39.88.   A much better rifle than the one he bought.

But... on the same page you can buy the Carcano 6.5mm with the scope mounted, for only $19.95.  And this is probably the same ad copy Lee Harvey saw and ordered from.  Wow.  I feel all historian-sleuthy.  I'm sure Klein's sent duplicate ads to all the gun magazines they advertised in, so it may not have have been Guns Magazine that the assassin used.  But it was almost certainly a facsimile of the ad on page 7.  Hey, I'm right.  His magazine was American Rifleman, tho.  According to wikipedia.

So it was cost, probably, that informed his selection.  Has there been a wealthy wack job assassin since Boothe?  If Oswald was looking to buy a rifle today for nefarious purposes...  I guess he'd get a Mosin.  That would appeal to the commie inside him.

[oh, and the whole 'revolver cartridges found at the scene' canard, like they were ejected when he shot the policeman?  That was wikipedia getting it wrong.  Or fuzzy, at least.  The testimony in the Warren Report don't make it sound like that at all.]