DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
What I want to see is the proof that shows that the conspiracy theorists are correct when they continually say that Oswald could have walked into any gun store in Texas in '63 and bought a gun without any paperwork being involved at all.
I don't think that has been proven. And the statements from various gun shop owners who provided information to the Warren Commission (or the FBI) would certainly indicate that at least SOME gun shop owners DID keep records of the people to whom they sold firearms in 1963.
I'm guessing that (in large part) this whole business about buying a gun in a gun shop without leaving a trace, which is promoted in Oliver Stone's fantasy movie as well, is probably nothing more than yet another in a long line of conspiracy myths foisted on the public since JFK's assassination.
NOTE -- To protect myself from future abuse by the Anybody-But-Oswald conspiracy theorists on the Internet, I will conclude this message with this addendum: I could be wrong about the last paragraph I just wrote above concerning the topic of buying guns in gun stores in 1963.
DAVID VON PEIN LATER SAID:
Relating to my comments above, I received the following e-mail from Gary Mack:
Date: 8/17/2010 1:57:44 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Gary Mack
To: David Von Pein
--------------------
Dave,
Regarding the purchase of weapons in Texas in the early 60s, Federal regulations required retailers to keep a log of all such sales. For example, Ray's Hardware in Dallas still has their January 19, 1960 log showing the revolver bought by Jack Ruby (but paid for by police detective Joe Cody, one of Ruby's friends). One of the folks at Ray's told me long ago that they must keep such records.
Gary
[End Quote.]
David Von Pein
August 17, 2010
2015 ADDENDUM:
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
There can be no doubt that at least some store owners who sold firearms in 1963 definitely did keep records of their gun sales. The two examples brought up in 2010 by Jean Davison here and here can easily be checked and verified by going to the primary source documents and Warren Commission testimony relating to those two examples — Albert Yeargan's July 21, 1964, affidavit, located at 11 H 207, and Alfred Hodge's Warren Commission testimony, which can be found at 15 H 496.
Yeargan said the following in his affidavit:
"When I worked for the H.L. Green Company, it had in stock and was offering for sale, a large number of Italian 6.5 mm rifles that were surpluses from World War II. On November 22, 1963, FBI Agents, Secret Service Agents, and I examined all sales records and receipt records concerning Italian 6.5 mm rifles. The records showed that the H.L. Green Company obtained its supply of these Italian 6.5 mm rifles from the Crescent Firearms Company in New York City." - Albert C. Yeargan, Jr.
And Hodge told the Warren Commission this on June 26, 1964:
"When it came in over the radio that [President Kennedy] had been killed with a 7-millimeter [sic] rifle, my wife and myself--we got our book and started checking to see who we had sold a 7-millimeter rifle to." -- Alfred D. Hodge
Hodge also told the WC this [at 15 H 503]:
"Captain Fritz' men came by with a shell, a Peters Wad Cutter, and that's this man and woman that got killed a few days ago out here and it has no concern with this case, but anyway, I checked my book and I found where I sold that man a gun and a box of ammunition, and they couldn't find nobody else that had that particular kind of ammunition, they said, so I called Captain Fritz and gave them that information and they went out and called me back in 2 hours and they said, "Boy, you're just as right as rain," and I give them a list of all the .45 automatics I had sold, and so they went out and picked up this bloody uniform and got a confession from him and he admitted everything." -- Alfred D. Hodge
JON G. TIDD SAID:
I fail to see the point of this [discussion]. It's interesting, but if anything it suggests strongly that the FBI deliberately failed to produce the material it obtained from Klein's, deliberately disposed of or destroyed the Klein's microfilm it allegedly obtained.
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
The point is, Jon, to refute the many posts and comments I have seen from conspiracy theorists who seem to think that owners of gun stores in Texas in 1963 kept NO RECORDS at all. But that's just not true.
Now, I suppose CTers can still claim that Oswald could have used another alias to purchase a gun from a gun shop, which might make the purchase untraceable (if Oswald had also chosen to lie about his address and if no identification was required by the shop owner).
But some records were likely kept of the gun transactions.
And I don't know why you're saying the FBI "deliberately disposed of" and/or "deliberately failed to produce" certain Klein's records. The FBI produced all of those Klein's documents. And they all were photographed and ended up as Warren Commission exhibits [see Warren Report, page 120].
The original microfilm was likely returned to Klein's. Big deal. It served its purpose, with all of the pertinent information relating to the purchase of the "C2766" rifle being copied and photographed for use in the official investigation.
So what's the big beef about the FBI and the Klein's documents?
~big shrug~
David Von Pein
September 6, 2015
