Ammunition Discrepancies & Eric's 13th Magazine

Hello, my main interest in this case is the analysis of the wide range of sources available of the forensics evidence and witness reports involved in piecing together a much more accurate version of the events that took place that day.

Eric fired 104 9mm rounds with his carbine at C.H.S. as shown from analyzed bullet casings. (See: CBI Reports)
Interestingly, the Official Report says that he only shot 96 rounds.

The carbine that Eric was shooting was found with no magazine, with the magazine that was last used being on the floor near Eric's body.
He had ejected the empty magazine from the carbine before switching to his shotgun and committing suicide.

Eric was found with 2 magazines in his pants pocket. He had not run out of ammo, unless he thought he did. These magazines might have jammed on him before. In total, the magazine's carried 9 rounds of 9mm each instead of the capacity of 10 rounds. Which is an interesting note. I wonder if these magazines had jammed on him, and he ejected 1 9mm round from each of them, upon dealing with the jam, before switching to a functional magazine. (Many live 9mm rounds of ammunition were found around the scene in multiple areas.) However, I have heard of (not an expert in firearms) of loading magazines to under full capacity to avoid complications.

What I find interesting though, is that there were only 10 magazine found discarded and empty + the 2 magazines in Eric's pockets, when he had written in his journal and expressed through basement tapes that he had a total of 13 magazines. No additional magazines were found at his residence nor nearby the school.

Another discrepancy among the many is Dylan's shotgun casings found in the Library. The discarded shells that were matched to Dylan's weapon would typically be found where Dylan had reloaded the weapon, based on the way the weapon operates.

6 discarded shells from his weapon were found in the Library:
* 2 shells were found between the computer tables
* 2 shells were found just south of the computer tables
* 2 fired shells were found in the chamber of the weapon (Could have been fired anywhere in the school: Cafeteria, Office, Science area etc)

So a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 6 shotgun rounds were fired by Dylan in the Library. This does not match up to the official list of events.

Kyle Velasquez was shot twice (See: Team 1 Firearm Discharges), followed by the Dylan reloading the shotgun, explaining why 2 discarded shells found in that area.

Then, Table 15 was shot at twice, followed by Dylan once again reloading the shotgun, explaining the 2 discarded shells found south of the computer tables, where Dylan was witnessed to have fired at Table 15, and was also witnessed reloading his weapon.

With only 2 possible shots fired by Dylan's shotgun remaining, there are 3 witnessed uses of it:
* The shot that killed Matt Kechter
* The shot fired at Table [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] at Mark Kintgen
* The initial shotgun round fired at Table [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Is it possible that Eric's shotgun was involved in one of these events? Based on the witness reports of the victims under Table [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], the view of the suspect's from underneath the table made them hard to identify.

Additionally, there is a significant amount of shotgun shells fired by Eric in the east section. 7 to be exact, meaning he fired a minimum of 6 and maximum of 8 shotgun shots in that area, depending on when he decided to eject the empty shell casing. Through Nicole Nowlen's witness report we know that 2 of the shots were directed at Table [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. That horrifically means that a minimum of 4 and maximum of 6 shots were fired at Table [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] from Eric's shotgun.

Sources: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

People who have experience with guns say they work better when the magazines aren't fully-loaded. Maybe Eric Harris knew that.

ThatDelawareReader wrote:

People who have experience with guns say they work better when the magazines aren't fully-loaded. Maybe Eric Harris knew that.

It probably is the case, I've seen people argue that you should load a magazine fully and others say leave a round or 2 not in it so that there isn't as much tension and pressure on the springs in it so that you can put it into your gun without having to use as much force and also because there is a lower chance of a jam happening. In my opinion the whole argument in itself is more of a superstition but leaving a round or 2 out will give the magazine less tension some of it could depend on the gun itself or the specific magazine itself when you put it in the magazine well as some guns are more fidgety than others.

mwilliam wrote:

He had not run out of ammo, unless he thought he did. .

Had they run out of bombs though, and did they wish to get bombed to death as well? They said the library was going to explode the first time they were in it.  They threw bombs at people they had shot already like video games, they die with bombs in their pants and at their feet, that final molotov to light them, etc. They leave the library despite - as it is cliche to point out - enough ammo to kill everyone - but they leave because that bomb didn't work (then, at 11:35, not earlier at 11:17) and to go make it work. 

It would also mean "why they chose the school" and "Why they return to the library" was not some traumatic trance but to at least initially if not completely get lost among the victims. The 15 crosses were supposed to be hundreds.

It seems to me pointing out the ammo is another case of needing to be reminded "It was a failed bombing, not just a school shooting," or better put in my view, it was an *active bombing" not just an "active shooter".  Hence why the cops stayed out as well, and luring them in seems the only reason to shoot people in a library they are saying will explode (with the perps inside it) anyway.  Dylan mentioned revenge for the January arrest before he mentioned revenge against his peers. His suicide method even resembles Murdoch in the film Titanic, a good example of a possible suicide lost among the wreckage.

Not to say it's not an interesting thing to try and track all the rounds or whatever, but just on the issue of "running out of ammo", one must consider running out of bombs too. It looks to me as if they used their last bombs on themselves.