Assassins (random gun crankery).

Some time back, I wrote about the guns of the presidential assassins.

GunsAmerica has an article up by Will Dabbs (who also writes for American Handgunner and is rapidly becoming the gun writer who amuses me the most): “The Assassination of William McKinley: Of Hopeless Causes and One Seriously Pathetic Pistol“.

Given the gun’s advanced age and questionable personality, I lack the fortitude to fire it. However, I am reasonably certain that the gun would be soft-shooting and easily pointed. So long as you mind the spurred hammer it should run well from concealment.

…

Czolgasz chose a truly horrible handgun for his mission. A coat button actually successfully deflected one round, while the other took eight days to end the life of his victim. McKinley’s wounds would have presented a technical challenge to a proper trauma surgeon today but should have been reliably survivable. McKinley’s obese habitus and a previously undiagnosed cardiomyopathy found on autopsy undoubtedly contributed to his death.

Dr. Dabbs’s article includes photos of the musuem display (which is not the actual gun, but an identical one) and the actual gun (which is kept in storage, along with the handkerchief Czolgasz used to conceal the gun, and which is “available for viewing by appointment only” in the Buffalo museum).

Hattip on this to Active Response Training and their “Weekend Knowledge Dump- January 19, 2024“. You really should be reading Greg Ellifritz, or at least these Friday Weekend Knowledge Dumps.

From KRTraining’s blog: “Annual Maintenance Tasks“. Or gun related things you should be checking at the start of the year.

Replace batteries in optics, flashlights, smoke detectors, and anything else that uses batteries.

As a personal thing, I remind my teams at work to check and replace the batteries in their smoke, carbon monoxide, and other detectors twice a year, at the time change. I think I picked this tip up from one of the fire prevention associations by way of “Dear Abby” (or “Ann Landers”, I disremember which one).

This entry was posted on Friday, January 19th, 2024 at 3:21 pm and is filed under Guns, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Assassins (random gun crankery).”

  1. Pigpen51 says:
    January 20, 2024 at 7:31 pm

    Will Dabbs is probably one of the top gun writers today. Not only does he know his stuff, but he makes it interesting to his readers. Likely due in part to the life he has lived.
    Most here are probably familiar with his background. I will mention that he served in the military as a helicopter pilot, finally ending up with his M.D. license and working at a medical clinic in his home state.
    I agree that a battery change twice a year is a good thing to do. Batteries are much cheaper than a house burned down or a leaking battery in an expensive piece of electronics.