So was his granddad's.


Does this style of gun look familiar to you?




How about this one:




Or this one?




The bottom two (Winchester Model 70 and Remington Model 700) trace their lineage to the top one, the Mauser bolt-action military rifle, designed to kill human beings at extreme ranges. All three served as front-line military weapons, and the Model 700 still does.



Going a little further back, does this style of rifle look familiar to you?



Yup, military weapon, with a 15+ round magazine. That's an early 1860's Henry, predecessor of the 15+ round Winchester Model 1873 and the 30+ round Evans repeating rifle of the 1870's.


Or how about this one?



Yup, military rifle.



And then you have this one:

An exclusively civilian gun, a .22 centerfire that shares some military heritage but functions like a civilian Remington Model 1908 or Ruger Mini-14:



That's my competition rifle, a Rock River Arms 16" midlength carbine, never used by any military on this planet.




Heightened lethality, huh? Funny, then, that rifles are now the least misused class of weapons in the United States, and that rifle homicide is now at or near an all-time low.

http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/data/tabl...

Total murders...........................13,636.....100.00%
Handguns.................................6,452......47.32%
Firearms (type unknown)..................1,928......14.14%
Other weapons (non-firearm, non-edged)...1,864......13.67%
Edged weapons............................1,825......13.38%
Hands, feet, etc...........................801.......5.87%
Shotguns...................................418.......3.07%
Rifles.....................................348.......2.55%