Authorities said they recovered the rifle that a gunman pointed into a Florida golf course where Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was playing Sunday. Unlike in the assassination attempt against Trump in July, and in many of the mass shootings that have plagued the country in recent years, authorities believe the suspected gunman did not use an AR-style rifle.
The weapon recovered by authorities was identified by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office as an “AK-47-style rifle” equipped with a scope. However, a firearms expert told The Washington Post the gun more closely resembled an SKS-type rifle.
Authorities said they recovered the rifle from a spot along the tree-lined chain-link fence surrounding the golf course at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla. The suspected gunman was spotted by Secret Service agents Sunday afternoon as Trump golfed on the course, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.
The suspect fled after being shot at by a Secret Service agent, Bradshaw said, foiling what is being investigated as a potential assassination attempt against Trump. Authorities said they also recovered two backpacks carrying ceramic tiles and a camera from the location where the suspected gunman was spotted.
Bradshaw described the weapon as an AK-style rifle. However, photos shared at a news conference Sunday appear to show an SKS-type rifle in a polymer stock, fitted with an AK-inspired magazine for 7.62mm cartridges, according to the firearms expert.
“The weapon in question has been misidentified as an AK-type rifle, probably due to the distinctively curved magazine and a visually similar gas system,” N.R. Jenzen-Jones, director of the consultancy Armament Research Services, told The Post.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office referred questions about whether the recovered weapon had been misidentified to the FBI, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Though the weapon shown in the photo has a curved magazine commonly associated with the well-known AK-47 rifle and its variants, the body more closely resembles an SKS-type rifle, Jenzen-Jones wrote in a message.
SKS-type rifles are semiautomatic weapons that chamber 7.62mm rounds, a higher caliber than is most often used by AR-style rifles. They are patterned off a design that originated in the Soviet Union in the 1940s but was soon rendered obsolete by the AK-47. Yet the rifle enjoyed wide proliferation among Soviet allies throughout the Cold War. The SKS is a mainstay at shops and gun shows in the United States because they are relatively cheap and fire plentiful ammunition.
The standard SKS is not a precision rifle, Jenzen-Jones said. Even with an added scope, the rifle is not the best choice for what is potentially a longer-range engagement, as it is still limited by other physical characteristics such as manufacturing tolerances and ammunition.
Trump was between 300 and 500 yards away from where the armed man was spotted, Bradshaw said at a Sunday news conference, which he deemed “not a long distance” for the weapon that was recovered.
It was unclear whether the man was able to fire any shots, or if the only shots were fired by the Secret Service.
Sunday’s incident comes two months after a gunman attempted to assassinate Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pa.
The 20-year-old gunman in the July shooting used an AR-style rifle legally purchased by his father several years prior, The Post previously reported. He fired at Trump from a rooftop around 450 feet away, or 150 yards, wounding the former president and killing a rally attendee.
Alex Horton contributed to this report.