<p>Sorry to keep harping on Stephen Hunter, but he is a gun enthusiast who has written an excellent series of thrillers about a Marine sniper called Bob Lee Swagger, of which this is the latest. I believe that he is extremely knowledgeable about the design and characteristics of the weapons and ammunition involved, the difficulty of the shot, and Oswald’s training and ability. He goes into it in great detail.</p>
<p>Hunter is also a Pulitzer-winning film critic, IIRC. He is not some kind of nut. :)</p>
<p>Lousy shots never get lucky enough to score bulls eyes except in the action movies. Did Mr. Hunter document Oswald’s whereabouts from 1959 to 1963 and confirm that Oswald never fired a rifle or received rifle training in the US or in Russia?</p>
<p>I am bothered by the fact that all evidence was suppressed for 100 years. Also, I am in Dallas and they have been showing interviews with doctors and such who treated JFK and they have said they were told what they could and could not say on questioning. Also, they say what they saw on JFK’s body when he was in the ER is not what the “official reports” said when they were released. And I guess a bunch of photos and xrays and such have been destroyed (supposedly). When so much is being hidden and lied about, it does come off like someone is conspiring something. Also, I wonder if when they finally do release the information, if it will all be totally wrong, but everyone who could possibly object will be dead.</p>
<p>The problem here is that the conspiracy we all know about – the efforts by those closest to Kennedy (and Kennedy himself before his death) to conceal the fact that he was medically unfit to be president – has interfered with our opportunities to find out whether or not his murder was the result of a conspiracy.</p>
<p>Severe back problems (yes medicated) and Addisons? FDR has his share of medical issues and Reagan developed dementia I his second term. Whose to say who is or is not medically fit.</p>
<p>Question: how many of you have been in the 6th Floor? You can almost get into Oswald’s position and, even with the trees different now, you can see the shot quite well. </p>
<p>The other thing is that Oswald hit this time, which doesn’t mean he’d hit it every time. We all know - I hope - that shooting, like everything else, averages out over time to your skill level. So what if Oswald wasn’t a fantastic shot? He hit this time and may well have missed the next 3 of 5 sets. When people talk about his shooter rating, that is a test done over a bunch of shots. It doesn’t have much to do with one set of 3 shots. He was obviously qualified enough to hit those, even if over time he would then have missed more than a really terrific shooter.</p>