GIL JESUS SAID:
Why did Oswald, who was planning to kill the President from the building where he worked, bring a 38-inch rifle to work and leave his revolver in his rented room, a revolver he would have needed to facilitate his escape?
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Obviously Gil is wrong (yet again). Because Oswald didn't need his revolver to facilitate his escape from the Book Depository. He was able to get clear of the building without his pistol.
And he no doubt knew that such a thing could likely occur, seeing as how he worked in the building and could be cleared as just another employee--which is exactly what did happen.
Whereas, if he'd been caught with a gun on him within minutes of the President being shot, it might prove a stickier wicket for Ozzie to negotiate successfully.
IOW, why start shooting people until it becomes mandatory? And it did become mandatory for LHO (at least from his POV at the time) at approx. 1:15 over on Tenth Street. To avoid arrest, he obviously felt he had no choice but to shoot Officer Tippit.
And if he had only been confronted by one single officer in the Texas Theater, it's very likely the exact same scenario that played out on Tenth Street would have repeated itself on Jefferson Boulevard in the theater -- i.e., one more dead Dallas cop.
But, unfortunately for double-killer Oswald, there was more than one cop in the theater.
David Von Pein
August 29, 2008
