Reply #29: Good point

[Euromutt]

There are a great many firearms chambered for .22LR, and it's probably the most common chambering in privately owned firearms both in the US and elsewhere. I recall reading a post on a blog or discussion forum where the author pointed out that it's the caliber involved in the largest number of gunshot woundings in the US, not because it's so powerful, but because there are so many more weapons chambered for it than any other caliber, not to mention the number of adapters available for weapons originally made for other calibers. For example, I own a Ruger 22/45 Mk.III pistol, and a "Remington" (actually Zastava) Model 5 Youth rifle, which are both dedicated .22LR firearms, but I also have a CZ85 9x19mm pistol and an OlyArms K3B (AR carbine) in 5.56x45 for which I have .22 adapters (the Kadet and the "RFA" replacement bolt/bolt carrier, resp.).

So yeah, if the cops find a corpse with one or more .22-cal bullets in him and no immediately identifiable murder weapon, they'd have to report it "type unknown" because it could be just about anything, even a zip gun or other improvised firearm (there was a case a few years ago here in Washington state in which the defendant had committed a self-defense shooting by placing a .22LR cartridge in one end of a bicycle steering tube and whacking it with a hammer; that the shooting was in self-defense was not disputed, but the defendant had a felony conviction and the prosecution alleged that his possessing the bicycle part and the hammer constituted illegal possession of a firearm).