Updated: September 30, 2013, 10:51 AM
The Remington Arms Company was born on a shooting field in the fall of 1816, when a young Eliphalet Remington II entered a shooting contest with a flintlock rifle of his own design. He came in second in the contest and, the legend has it, other contestants quickly asked Remington to make rifles and barrels for them. As the company that still bears the Remington name now brags, “before Eliphalet left the shooting field, he was in the gun business.”On Sept. 14, Aaron Alexis, who had recently moved to the Washington, D.C. area, paid a visit Sharpshooters Small Arms Range in Lorton, Va. He rented a rifle and purchased ammunition, and then spent some time on the practice range. Afterwards, he asked about buying a handgun, but was told he could only buy one if he had it shipped to his home state (in this case Texas) through another federally-licensed gun store. Alexis decided to buy a shotgun instead. He settled on a Remington 870 and also bought two boxes — 24 shells — of ammunition. That same day, he bought a hacksaw at a Northern Virginia home improvement store.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=204285