The gun used to kill 18 people in a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston was designed to kill moose and elk.
Maine State Police officially identified the gun used by Robert Card II to kill 18 people and injure 13 others as a Ruger SFAR that was purchased in July at a Poland, Maine, gun shop, officials told members of the state’s independent commission investigating the shooting on Thursday.
Card legally purchased the gun at Fine Line Gun Shop on July 6, about 10 days before members of Card’s Army Reserve unit called New York State Police because he was acting in a “threatening manner,” according to a New York State Police report the Bangor Daily News obtained in January.
The gun was first found by police in Card’s car at a boat launch in Lisbon on the night of the mass shooting, but the Maine State Police did not officially confirm it was the weapon used in the shooting until more than three months after the massacre.
The Ruger SFAR is similar to an AR-15 rifle — the group of guns frequently associated with mass shootings — but it shoots larger bullets that are more powerful, according to Ruger.
The SFAR that Card used to gun down patrons at Just-In-Time Recreation and Schemengees Bar and Grille was loaded with .308 Winchester rounds, which are commonly used by military and police snipers as well as big game hunters, according to a January 2022 article from the American Rifleman, a publication owned by the National Rifle Association.
Typically, AR-15-style rifles shoot .223 Remington or 5.56 NATO rounds, which are smaller and weigh less than .308 bullets.
While .223 Remington rounds are designed to “produce larger wounds with high velocity,” larger .308 caliber bullets have more mass which means they will “penetrate a greater depth to kill a large game animal at a longer distance,” according to a medical education training website developed by the University of Utah.
A woman who did not identify herself but answered the phone at Fine Line Gun Shop said the store had no comment.
