Rifle that killed Charlie Kirk was older than serial numbers

The gun Tyler Robinson allegedly used to assassinate Charlie Kirk was so old that it predated serial number mandates — making the weapon impossible to track.

The Mauser model rifle, described in texts by Robinson as “grandpa’s rifle,” is a decades-old, German-made gun used in both world wars and on the market years before a law created after the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy mandated weapons to be etched with unique, traceable numbers.

There are believed to be millions of such weapons in homes throughout the country — raising concerns among federal authorities of the potential for other assassins to carry out similar attacks with their untraceable rifles. 5

“Short of the security afforded to the president, there’s no way to defend against the threat posed by t