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lots -o-ammo could a 120 lb kid carry

lock stock and barrellock stock and barrel Member Posts: 91 ✭✭
edited December 2013 in Ask the Experts
can someone explain to me if a person of maybe 120 lbs could carry 452 rounds of ammo.
for two hand guns and a bushmaster??
looks like three mags for each hand gun ...
so he shot 154 rds in 5 min. had to be carrying min of ten 30 rd mags for the rifle ...
and all ammo for the hand guns, how could it be done?? or can it????
how can a person carry all that stuff??
this was reported by the conn police that adam lanza had this much ammo on him 42 plus 154 shots fired=600 rds!!??
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Comments

  • tsr1965tsr1965 Member Posts: 8,682 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Fairly simple task, with a small book bag/backpack. Its not like like the rounds for the 223 are like cement blocks, and the pistol rounds are like bricks.

    Its not a matter of how much he had, it is a matter how he got it, and why was he not institutionalized before he could do this.

    Best

    EDIT 1

    I whole heartedly agree rufe...this belongs in General Discussion. The OP does not realize that is not a great quantity of ammunition. I know some folks with in excess of 70K rounds on hand. It is not a crime.

    The 452 rounds the OP speaks of, could have fit easily into a paper lunch bag like we used to carry.

    Best
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  • rufe-snowrufe-snow Member Posts: 18,650 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Perhaps this would be a better topic, for the General Discussion forum?

    That said, IMHO your beating a dead horse. All the tin foil hat fantasies. About the uber screwed up Lanza family, were played out last year. The kid was a whack job, the mom knew it. And didn't get him the help he needed. Or have him institutionalized.
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  • fordsixfordsix Member Posts: 8,554 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    he was crazyer than most of the youngsters i had in the institution under my watch[:0]
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  • beantownshootahbeantownshootah Member Posts: 12,776 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by lock stock and barrel
    can someone explain to me if a person of maybe 120 lbs could carry 452 rounds of ammo.
    for two hand guns and a bushmaster??

    Where are you going with this? You're saying he DIDN'T do it? He had help from the shooter at the grassy knoll? Come on. . .let it go.

    To answer the actual question, a loaded standard 30 round AR-15 magazine only weighs 15 ounces. Standard AR-15 rifle itself weighs 7-8 lbs depending on configuration.

    So a loadout with rifle and 12 full magazines (ie 360 rounds) still weighs under 20 lbs.

    Full sized Glocks weigh 25 ounces empty, and SIGs 34 ounces. Loaded 17 round mags weight only 7 ounces each. So those two pistols with 5 loaded mags each add another 170 rounds and only another 7.5 lbs.

    Bottom line, you've MORE than exceeded your 450 rounds with only about 28 lbs total carry weight.

    Distribute that weight between a slung rifle, mags in a backpack and holstered or tucked sidearms in holster (or even in pockets) and that shouldn't be a big deal for a 120lb male to carry, especially for a relatively limited period of time.


    quote: Could he carry that much and still function like some "high speed operator"? Probably not so much.
    In terms of overall loadout, he really wasn't carrying all that much weight, and IMO, he didn't really need to be a "high speed operator". It hardly requires the skills of a SWAT-SEAL-super commando to shoot predominantly 6 and 7 year old kindergarden students and a few unarmed adults at point black range indoors.

    Without belaboring this, the evidence suggests that Lanza set out with the deliberate goal of killing as many people as possible. As sick as it sounds, Lanza literally wanted to set the "world record" for mass murder in a shooting incident, and he apparently spent quite a bit of time planning this.

    For loadout, Lanza was wearing a tactical vest at the time of the shooting. That's what the "operators" use and these distribute weight of multiple magazines over the torso, making them easy to carry and easy to access. 12 lbs of magazines spread out with one of these packs is really not much at all.

    In terms of actual shots, from the first shot to the time of his suicide was about 5-6 minutes. During that time he fired about 155 shots, deliberately shooting most of his victims multiple times each. You can do the math, but a shooting pace of about one full magazine per minute with reloads isn't particularly fast, especially not when you consider the guy was deliberately trying to cycle as many rounds as possible.

    Oh. . .although scrawny, Lanza was 20 years old at the time of this incident and 5'9" tall. That makes him older than most military recruits, at least average height, and IMO a "young adult".
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  • mark christianmark christian Member Posts: 24,443 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    A typical WWII era grunt weighed 140 lbs and marched for miles. Americans were smaller back then and most young men who grew up during the height of the Depression were mildly (or seriously) malnourished. A standard combat load weighed 60 or more pounds plus the weight of an M1 Rifle and for paratroopers it was over 100 pounds. Can someone who weighs 120 pounds carry 450 rounds of ammo, a lightweight rifle (an AR is a feather weight compared with an M1 Garand) and two handguns for a few hundred meters? Easily.
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  • charliemeyer007charliemeyer007 Member Posts: 6,572 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I think the more interesting question is how much Prozac or other proscribed drug was he on, for how long and did he withdrawal shortly before? Would have been over sooner and with less victims had other people had a firearm. The mentally sick and criminal folks don't obey the "Gun Free Zones Laws" and seem to go to those places because they are in fact target rich environments.
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  • mango tangomango tango Member Posts: 3,833 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by lock stock and barrel
    can someone explain to me if a person of maybe 120 lbs could carry 452 rounds of ammo.
    for two hand guns and a bushmaster??
    looks like three mags for each hand gun ...
    so he shot 154 rds in 5 min. had to be carrying min of ten 30 rd mags for the rifle ...
    and all ammo for the hand guns, how could it be done?? or can it????
    how can a person carry all that stuff??
    this was reported by the conn police that adam lanza had this much ammo on him 42 plus 154 shots fired=600 rds!!??

    My neighbor was in Vietnam in '69, and I asked him how much ammo did he carry, he said 20 magazines, with 20 per magazine, a few hand grenades, claymore mines, and three canteens of water, etc. and he was a scrawny skinny kid too!
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  • sandwarriorsandwarrior Member Posts: 5,453 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    No question whatsoever about him being able to carry that much. Could he carry that much and still function like some "high speed operator"? Probably not so much. Enough to do the damage he did (if he did) I suppose.

    In all, a lot of that story was given to us in bits and pieces. And then "re-given" to us. Even the fact an AR was found in the trunk of the car is not enough to dissuade the anti-'s into understanding a black rifle was not used in the crime. Yet it was there and needed to be vilified by them.

    Funny how we are hearing about this story again and again today, while the Georgia copycat shooter was stopped with one bullet.

    In any event, I've covered the tangents I think associate best with this, and IMO, it would best be moved to GD. Any Mods willing to do so?
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