Scope Zero & Pants-Leg Concealment
Most of the public argument over whether a scoped Mauser .30-06 could have been walked off the Utah Valley University campus is an argument about whether the rifle fits — in a backpack, down a trouser leg, broken into pieces. A short video circulated on August 2, 2026 by comedian Owen Benjamin makes a different argument: even if it fits, the scope would no longer be zeroed, and a rifle that has lost its zero cannot be trusted for a precision shot. Tyler Robinson is charged, not convicted, and is presumed innocent.
1:56. An unidentified gun owner slides a replica .30-06 down loose-fitting jeans, narrating in mock agreement before turning to the scope argument. Source: @OwenBenjamin on X, August 2, 2026.
The demonstration
The speaker in the clip is not identified by name. He is holding what he calls a replica .30-06 and delivers the first half of the video in open sarcasm, performing the concealment claim rather than disputing it:
Do you think that this replica 30 [ought] six can fit all the way down in my pants and nobody actually realize it? So obviously, this is incredibly inconspicuous. I could, you know, walk up some stairs if I had to. Nobody would know what was going on here. So this is definitely plausible. You know, these are a little bit of a looser fitting jean, so it's harder to tell it's in there. Let me get my belt pulled around. Obviously, this is just the kneecap, the scope on there... this is just like where you maybe keep something in your pocket, and maybe you'll hold a little bit of fat on one side of your body. But this is easily to, you know, you could go upstairs, walk across campus comfortably. Nobody would notice anything. Yeah, no, this is definitely plausible, guys.
He then drops the sarcasm and states the point of the exercise:
Now, the parts of that that some people aren't going to actually talk about is the fact that I wouldn't even trust that gun to be shot at a deer, let alone the most life-changing shot of my life in a negative or positive manner... I think the scope might be off already, just from trying to do that. You have people like the misfit patriot who are literally taking apart the gun and putting parts of it on either side and saying, look, look, and you can put it back together. Yeah, no, it's obviously not going to be concealed. And I would not trust that gun to be shot. You have to sight these things in. So no, this doesn't seem like a very plausible explanation for how the gun magically appeared on a rooftop.
He closes by saying he used sarcasm deliberately, and characterizes the commentators defending the official account as people who do not know guns — a characterization presented here as his opinion, not as established fact:
Now, obviously I used a lot of sarcasm in this video. I'm just tired of all of the paid off shills acting like they know what's going on or they know anything about guns. They don't. They're just making this whole narrative up so they can get $7,000 a post. And meanwhile, we're the ones sitting here going, this doesn't seem very accurate.
Owen Benjamin's commentary
Owen Benjamin, a comedian and farmer with roughly 309,000 followers on X, shared the clip with his own framing. His post is reproduced below nearly in full:
This dude nails it. I love how he addresses the scope situation which is by far the craziest part. Sighting a scope takes a while and requires you shoot live ammo while you do it. Just putting the gun in your pants let alone disassembling it would make the scope useless.
I love that this is a format honest gun owning dudes can do now. A lot of dudes get super frustrated by how psychotic the narrative is. I find the ballistics examples great and dudes recreating the exact shot w a pig head like @valhallavft. But this example of just clothing works on people that know nothing about guns but have simply worn clothing. I saw it click with women especially.
Choosing to forget and play make believe because you're scared doesn't help you at all. I understand these things are upsetting and scary, but forgetting choosing to forget your experiences and your logic makes you vulnerable. It does not keep you safe. I knew @RealCandaceO was onto something the way they attacked her.
I'm literally a comedian who used to get paid to mock people who threw tomatoes at me at a renn faire. I love good jokes and mockery that picks at ego and identity. This was not that. They are claiming they know her soul is evil simply because she respected Charlie enough to remember. And for that she has my respect and I know I'm not alone in that feeling. And being a victim of childhood bike theft it takes a while for me to trust "one of them...." But Candace is solid.
The post reported 5,852 likes, 834 reposts, 583 bookmarks and roughly 174,600 views at the time it was archived on this site.
The scope-zero argument, stated plainly
The argument being made has three steps, and it is worth separating them because they carry different weight:
- Zeroing a rifle scope is a live-fire process. Mounting a scope does not sight it in. The shooter fires groups at a known distance and adjusts windage and elevation until point of aim matches point of impact. This is uncontroversial among shooters and is the premise both Benjamin and the video's speaker rely on.
- A zero can be disturbed by rough handling. A scope knocked, flexed against a leg, or with its rings or mounts loosened can shift. How much, and whether enough to matter at the roughly 130–150 yard distance discussed for the Losee rooftop shot, is not established by this video — no before-and-after group is fired on camera.
- Removing and remounting a scope reliably destroys a zero. This is the strongest form of the claim, and it applies specifically to the "take the rifle apart, carry the pieces separately, put it back together" version of the concealment theory — the version the speaker attributes to an account he calls "the misfit patriot."
Step 3 is the one that bites. A concealment theory that requires disassembly buys smuggling at the cost of accuracy; a theory that keeps the rifle assembled keeps the zero but forfeits the concealment. The video's contribution is to point out that the two defenses are usually offered by the same people, and are in tension with each other.
What this video does not show
This page records the argument, not a verdict on it. Several limits are worth stating:
- It is a demonstration, not a test. No group is fired before or after the pants-leg carry, so the claim that the zero shifted is asserted, not measured.
- The rifle is a replica, by the speaker's own description, and is not the seized Exhibit 1 rifle. Its scope mounting, ring torque, and optic quality are unknown and may differ from the weapon in evidence.
- The speaker is unidentified, so his firearms background cannot be checked.
- The counterargument exists on this site too. A widely shared satire clip archived on the section overview makes the opposite case by sliding rifles down slim-fit jeans, and the concealment question is argued in detail at Backpack & Rifle Impossibility.
- Nothing here speaks to who fired. The scope-zero argument is about whether the described method is workable, not about the identity of any shooter.
The strongest independent test of the same question is not a clothing demonstration at all — it is the September 17, 2025 ATF report finding that the autopsy jacket fragment could not be matched to the seized rifle (ATF Fragment Inconclusive), and the July 2026 hearing testimony about dust and debris inside the barrel (Barrel Dust & Bullet Diameter).
X.com posts:
Interesting In This Area
- A Mauser 98 in .30-06 is a commercial rifle, not the wartime K98 commentators expected.
- The rifle reportedly lay wrapped in a towel in a wooded strip north of campus.
- Multiple prints were reportedly on that rifle, and no video shows anyone firing it.
- If the Mauser chain fails, alternative calibers and the energy gap take over.
Interesting In Other Areas
- The backpack volume argument is sharper: the roof figure's pack looks fuller afterward, not emptier.
- Stairwell footage and the man charged differ on clothing and pack fill.
- Citizen reviewers report no muzzle flash and no recoil in the rooftop surveillance frames.
- Ordinary evidence questions — who found the rifle, and when — stay publicly unanswered.
Other Pages In This Section
A .30-06 round carries roughly 3,950 joules against a 9mm's 482. Commentators argue the wound described publicly does not match that energy — the arithmetic is not disputed, the inference is.
Read this
A claim recorded in the master file says a bullet was lodged in the wooden stage, and that it was removed. If a second projectile existed and left before independent documentation, it belongs in a chain-of-custody log nobody has produced.
Read this
Rifle Site — White Kia Soul Turnaround (Claims)
A citizen journalist circles a wooded lot on September 10 aerial imagery and says a white Kia Soul turned around at exactly that spot that morning. No plate, no VIN, no registration — the page carries the claim and the missing links together.
Read this
Alternative Calibers & Weapons
If the Mauser chain fails on the lab report, the energy, or the geometry, what fired instead? This page holds the proposed answers — a 9mm CornerShot from the tent, a suppressed small-bore, or no bullet at all, as in the exploding-mic theory.
Read thisElsewhere In The Investigation
Backpack & Rifle Impossibility
Light shorts in the morning, a half-full student pack, and a long scoped rifle that has to reach a roof somehow. The volume argument is the sharp one: the roof figure's pack looks fuller after the change, not emptier.
Read this
The stairwell figure and the camera-tracked Tyler wear different clothes and carry different packs — one roughly half full, the other nearly full. The official reading needs the pack to get fuller after an outfit change.
Read thisCitizen reviewers say roof surveillance shows no muzzle flash and no rifle recoil at the moment Kirk was hit. It is used to argue the roof figure was a decoy rather than the source of the harm.
Read this
Who found the rifle, when, after which K-9 passes, and how the towel-wrapped bundle was photographed and sealed. These are ordinary evidence-handling questions, and on the public record they are unanswered.
Read thisThis website's author is @HolonCitizen on X and YouTube/@HolonCitizen. Follow me there.
Interesting
- A .30-06 carries over eight times the energy of a 9mm, which the wound pattern contradicts.
- Scene still photography is cited for drone activity the lone-rifle account never addresses.
- Most of this evidence circulated only in the podcast and YouTube record mainstream outlets skipped.