Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 31, 1994 TAG: 9405310006
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ray Reed
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A. This sign is mass-produced in a silk-screening process, so one letter doesn't affect the cost much. Why is the D there? It's a federal highway rule. Does it matter? The feds say the D makes the message a bit more emphatic.
Only Scrabble players can truly appreciate the difference. \ \ Small bore, big bore
A number of callers after last week's item about assault weapons insisted the Chinese-made SKS rifle fires an even larger bullet than I said. It's a 7.62mm rifle, these gun enthusiasts said.
The last thing we want to do here is market semiautomatic rifles, but the SKS is now available in the flat-trajectory 5.56mm version that was used in the Lynchburg shooting spree.
That's the conclusion of ATF agents who found a 5.56mm SKS in a van used by the Lynchburg shooters. The agents picked up spent 5.56mm shell casings from the scene on Oak Street.
The 7.62mm SKS is much more common. This size was used in a Botetourt shooting. Big-bore or small-bore, they're battle weapons with magazine capacity reduced for the civilian market.\ \ Not our Salem
Q: A biography program about Confederate Col. John Mosby, the Gray Ghost, on the Arts & Entertainment channel May 18 said he disbanded his rangers at Salem, Va., four days after Appomattox. I had never heard this about the Roanoke Valley, and I've lived here all my life. N.L.C., Roanoke
A: Mosby assembled his troops for the last time at a place called Salem in Fauquier County. The village was renamed Marshall in 1882 - the same year another village gave up the name Big Lick.
a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.
by CNB