Some of you already know this, but others obviously don't, so lemme clue you folks into the "sniper/marksman/sharpshooter" thing.

Some years ago, one of my friends was into competitive target pistol shooting. He and I spent many Saturday or Sunday afternoons at the Seattle Police Athletic Association firing range punching holes in targets with .22 cal. target pistols at twenty-five yards (we weren't training to blow people away; target shooting is sort of like golf; you shoot for score.). At other times we went out to some isolated area with a good backdrop and shot the hell out of empty pop cans and other debris that people had dumped there. Often other friends joined us, a couple of whom had rifles. One afternoon, I leaned over the hood of my friend's car with another friend's rifle (.270 cal., I don't recall what make), I drew a bead on an empty blue plastic gallon detergent container on a hillside about 100 yards away (the length of a football field or average city block), squeezed the trigger, and hit it square on. It bounced about ten feet in the air. For the next few minutes, I bounced the thing all over the hillside. I fired about a dozen rounds at it and didn't miss it once.

Now, that gallon container was a smidgen larger that a human head and a whole lot smaller that a human torso. This rifle was equipped with a telescopic sight complete with crosshairs, and it was the first time I had ever used one. Lining up on the target was no problem at all, and I could have punctuated the label on the container if I'd wanted to. Up until then, I had put no more than fifty rounds in total through rifles of various kinds. Other than "take a deep breath, let it out halfway, and squeeze the trigger," I had received no instruction in how to shoot a rifle. In no way was I, or am I, any kind of sharpshooter or marksman.

The .223 cal. cartridge that the Bushmaster uses is high velocity and flat trajectory. It's highly accurate, and unless you have a hefty crosswind or the target is very distant, it bullet goes where you aim it. Also, I understand that John Allen Mohammad's Bushmaster was equipped with a scope sight.

My point:— this kind of "deadly accuracy" does not require a high level of expertise. Anyone who has spent a modicum of time with a rifle can do it.

Not, I must admit, a comforting thought.

Don Firth