Essential Update at the end

Well, now that Americans have forgotten about Sandy Hook and are all excited excited excited for the President’s inauguration tomorrow (Obama 2.0? More like Obama 1.1), okay, well, now the story is getting out that Adam Lanza did not use an assault rifle during his attack; in fact, it now appears he didn’t have one at all. Four handguns were used.

This is exactly what the Mandarin predicted, by the way, and what a pain that he didn’t post that but mentioned it to us in person about a month ago. Normally, the press is keen to splash pictures of the weapons all over the place to shock people, and their absolute inability to do so was most revealing to him.

As the Czar watches the video (around the :10 second mark), you can see someone clearing rounds out of a long gun with an action not unlike a 12-gauge semiauto shotgun; we cannot tell the weapon make from this distance, but you can see whatever ammunition it has dropping out in to the trunk—you could easily see shotgun shells from such a distance but not .223 bullets. At 0;11 seconds, you can see a barrel on top of a magazine tube:

Either way, that’s no Bushmaster .223, which takes on many shapes and sizes but looks often like this:

So. What it comes down to is this: the media are lying.

One cannot possibly accept that the media are ignorant on this issue. While that is a probability on most issue, one month has passed in which media types were given every conceivable explanation for the distance between AR-15s and other rifle platforms, why AKs are not ARs, why a .223 is not a monster bullet, the difference between semi-automatic and fully automatic, and so on.

The smallest amount of fact-checking would have cleared this up in no time.

Instead, you have active suppression of evidence followed by an informed distortion of the record. In fact, the Czar would suggest that Bushmaster (terribly libeled and slandered by the media) turn this over to their legal team for a couple million in brand damages.

Also, the Czar would very much like to own a Bushmaster AR-15; if they would kindly donate one to him for keepsies, he would write a very thorough and thoughtful review explaining, in very balanced fairness, what an awesome product they have and why everyone should own one and why it is superior to every other AR-15 manufacturer models.

At least the Czar admits that he would be in the bag. If, of course, you work for a rifle manufacturer that makes AR-15s and would rather see the Czar write a favorable review of your rifle, keep in mind that about 1500 people per day read us. And, well, the Czar would be well inclined to make your latest product(s) look superior to Bushmaster.

See how refreshing honesty can be?

Update!

Alert reader Bill Godbold notified us that on Friday, police formally identified the weapons used in the shooting; indeed, there were two handguns (Sig Sauer P226, a Glock 20), a Bushmaster XM15-E2S, and the Saiga Canta-12 shotgun the Czar spotted.

The Czar is curious how two handguns, a shotgun, and an assault rifle were, for weeks, repeatedly identified as four handguns and a Bushmaster. And that the confirmation didn’t happen until a different story leaked out. Not that the Czar is conspiratorial enough to suspect items were intentionally hidden or revealed or somehow invented. This is still a big screw up. And he does not accuse the State of Connecticut or subsequent law enforcement of anything questionable: the Czar still squints at the media.

However, the Czar will concede the media was not wrong about the Bushmaster. It is, however, of great interest why they knew about the rifle before the public received confirmation of it.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.