1. Oswald’s Rifle On March 12, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald ordered a surplus Italian carbine from an ad in the American Rifleman for $19.95 plus shipping. The Carcano M91/38 he received was manufactured for only one year, 1940. The rifle is now stored in the National Archives; the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas has a replica.
2. Bonnie and Clyde’s Pistols After the outlaws’ deaths, in 1934, Clyde Barrow’s Colt 1911 .45 and Bonnie Parker’s snub-nosed .38, which she had taped to her inner thigh, were given to famed Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, who had led the manhunt. In 2012 the guns were auctioned off to an anonymous Texas collector for more than $504,000.
3. Dick Cheney’s Shotgun The shot heard round the late-night circuit. On February 11, 2006, the sitting vice president accidentally shot attorney Harry Whittington in the face while they hunted quail on the Armstrong Ranch, in South Texas. Whittington recovered, but the fate of the gun was never made public.
4. Toepperwein’s Winchester In 1907 Texas sharpshooter Ad Toepperwein set a world record by firing at 72,500 tossed blocks of wood with Winchester Model 1903 .22-caliber rifles and hitting all but 9 of them.
5. The Gun that Shot J.R. Perhaps the most famous gun in recent Texas history is a prop: the revolver used to shoot J. R. Ewing in the 1980 Dallas cliffhanger. It’s on display at the Southfork Ranch, near Dallas.
6. Rick Perry’s Coyote Killer The former governor claimed in 2010 to have used his .380 laser-sighted Ruger pistol to kill a coyote that was threatening his dog. Ruger later released a version of the gun dubbed the Coyote Special.
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Texas gun ownership is about 6 percent higher than the national average, and the state would be joining a small number of others that already claim an official firearm. The first to bestow such an honor was Utah in 2011, when it named the Browning model 1911 automatic pistol as its official firearm.
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