On September 14 in The Media, Charlie Kirk and guns, I engaged in a bit of informed speculation about the reported Mauser 98 rifle alleged to have been used in the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I also suggested that if the assassin had never fired the rifle, if it was not properly zeroed for him, it’s likely hitting Kirk in the neck was an indication that he nearly missed. This assumes the killer was aiming for a chest or head shot.
Graphic: Police photo. Public Domain
Now we know the rifle was a Mauser 98, apparently “sporterized” by adding a modern polymer stock and what appears to be a relatively low-powered, inexpensive scope. Reports suggest the rifle belonged to the killer’s grandfather. The killer apparently said so:
“If I am able to grab my rifle unseen, I will have left no evidence,” he initially wrote. “Going to attempt to retrieve it again, hopefully they have moved on. I haven’t seen anything about them finding it.”
“I’m worried what my old man would do if I didn’t bring back grandpas rifle,” he wrote. “idek if it had a serial number, but it wouldn’t trace to me. I worry about prints I had to leave it in a bush where I changed outfits. didn’t have the ability or time to bring it with.”
Some sources suggest the killer’s grandfather gave him the rifle as a gift. In any case, we have no idea if the killer had ever fired the rifle or if it was zeroed for him. Absent more direct evidence, my speculation that the hit was a bad zero-related miss stands, which isn’t the media’s concern.
They’re in a panic because it’s likely the rifle has no serial number:
The Mauser model rifle, described in texts by Robinson as “grandpa’s rifle,” is a decades-old, German-made gun used in both world wars and on the market years before a law created after the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy mandated weapons to be etched with unique, traceable numbers.
There are believed to be millions of such weapons in homes throughout the country — raising concerns among federal authorities of the potential for other assassins to carry out similar attacks with their untraceable rifles.
They’re referring to the Gun Control Act of 1968 which, for the first time, mandated unique serial numbers.
Oh no! Rampant, unsolved crime! Pestilence! Dogs and cats living together! Reality, as always, is the opposite of media hysteria. In the Kirk case, there is no difficulty putting the rifle in the assassin’s hands. When and where it was made and who has owned it in the past are essentially irrelevant.
During my police career, I never solved a crime through a firearm serial number, nor was I aware of anyone who did. Imagine a criminal who leaves a gun at the scene of a murder. Imagine also there’s no DNA nor fingerprints, which are only rarely found on guns.
So, intrepid police ask for a serial number trace and an equally intrepid ATF quickly reports back the gun was manufactured in 1982 and sold to Joe’s Wholesale Guns that year. Joe reports it was sold to Jim’s gun store three states away in 1983, who sold it to Joe Citizen that year. Amazingly, Joe still lives at the address on the form 4473. Local police talk to Joe who tells them he sold it to some guy at a local gun show around 2005 or so, and there the trail ends.
Even if a given gun was traced to its original owner who still owned it—or thought he did—and is amazed to discover it somehow turned up at a crime scene multiple states away, the police must place the owner at the crime scene and must place the gun in the owner’s hands at the time it was fired, to say nothing of motive, opportunity and all the other factors necessary to prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt.
Serial numbers are almost never a factor in solving a crime. All they reveal is the original buyer of the gun. Confessions, finding the gun on a criminal, witness testimony, or as in the Kirk case, texts, surveillance video, finding the blanket-wrapped gun where the killer hid it and apparently, DNA traces and possibly fingerprints on the gun and probably on the cartridges are far more useful evidence.
Serial numbers as an indispensably vital crime-fighting tool are just one more anti-liberty/gun distraction from reality.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.