Why an earth would the police have a hunch that Nevill had not rang Jeremy at 3am & said 'please come over, Sheila's gone crazy & she's got the gun' ?
Surprised Nevill said 'the gun'.
What gun ? There were several at WHF. Including shot guns. Massive difference between a shot gun & a rifle for shooting rabbits.
It was a rifle Sheila used, not a gun . It was also the rifle Jeremy had used earlier that evening.
It would not have taken any longer for Nevill to say 'she's picked up the rifle you left out'.
As it happened Jeremy was very perceptive & instantly assummed the 'gun' Nevill was referring to was actually a rifle for shooting rabbits he had left out.
Anthony Arlidge referred to the rifle as a shotgun during the trial so I don't think anything can be read into the terminology used no more than it can be inferred a second moderator was introduced into proceedings on the basis the one used to convict JB was referred to as silencer and sound moderator simultaneously.
The CoA doc refers to the murder weapon as a rifle and gun:
13. The
rifle was a .22 Anshutz automatic rifle. Together with a Parker Hale sound moderator (silencer) and telescopic sights, it had been bought by Nevill Bamber on 30 November 1984. 500 rounds of ammunition had also been purchased. There was evidence that the
gun was used to shoot rabbits and would only ever be used with the sound moderator and the telescopic sights attached. A screwdriver was required to remove the telescopic sights but there was evidence that this was not normally done because of the time it took to realign them.
Throughout the doc the murder weapon is referred to as 'rifle' and 'gun'. A rifle is technically a gun.
