The excerpts you're quoting there are about paraffin tests, which is not what I was referring to.
The FBI actually conducted other tests - including neutron activation analysis, that showed Oswald hadn't fired a rifle that day. As Harold Weisberg discovered, the FBI conducted control tests that showed gunshot residue was always present on the cheek of test shooters using the same model of Carcano. They were unable to find any presence of this on Oswald's cast using the NAA process - a method that's perfectly reliable and sill used today.
Whilst I wouldn't accuse Mr Cunningham of committing perjury, the FBI knew full well his statement about the likelihood of that rifle depositing gunshot residue on the shooters cheek was false because there own tests showed it did in copious amounts.
Oswald cannot have killed Kennedy if he hadn't fired a rifle. The evidence tells us he didn't.
Might you have a link to these FBI tests from the primary source?
Bolded - I'm not speculating here - outside of a catastrophic failure of a rifle or shotgun, no modern smokeless powder firearm will deposit nitrate residue on the face of the shooter.
There are some rare exceptions that aren't applicable in this case, but in the interest of accurately describing such events I'll included them here.
Contrary to what you see in the movies wrt sound suppressors on handguns, there's not some minor quiet report at the firing of the piece without other events occurring.
When a suppressed semi auto handgun is fired, because of the additional baffling and what amounts to a restriction of the expanding gases behind the projectile, when the slide moves to the rear and extracts and ejects the spent casing, the gases flow through the path of least resistance, namely the ejection port of the pistol.
Fire enough rounds through the piece w/ the can on and the shooter will look like a chimney sweep.
The other exception to this involves belt fed machineguns, and that is clearly not within the scope of any discussion involving LHO and Dallas.
ETA: just found this:
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
Washington 25, D.C.
July 8, 1964
By Courier Service
Honorable J. Lee Rankin
The President’s Commission
200 Maryland Avenue, Northeast
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. Rankin:
As previously reported to the Commission, certain small lead metal fragments uncovered in connection with this matter were analyzed spectrographically to determine whether they could be associated with one or more of the lead bullet fragments and no significant differences were found within the sensitivity of the spectrographic method.
Because of the higher sensitivity of the neutron activation analysis, certain of the small lead fragments were then subjected to neutron activation analyses and comparisons with the larger bullet fragments. The items analyzed included the following: C1—bullet from stretcher; C2—fragment from front seat cushion; C4 and C5—metal fragments from President Kennedy’s head; C9—metal fragment from the arm of Governor Connally; C16—metal fragments from the rear floor board carpet of the car.
While minor variations in composition were fund by this method, these were not considered sufficient to permit positively differentiating among the larger bullet fragments and thus positively determining from which of the larger bullet fragments any given small lead fragment may have come.
Sincerely yours,
J. Edgar Hoover (signed)
If this is the test you're referring to, it doesn't mention anything about LHO not firing a rifle.
