Mr. and Mrs. Paine are somehow involved in this affair.

So we are told, Lee bought the rifle in March of 1963 -- He was living on Neely St. in Dallas.

In early April, Lee took the shot at Gen Walker, and took off to New Orleans to find work. He doesn't drive a car, so the Paines' drive the Oswalds and all their belongings (including the rifle) to New Orleans. Lee stays there until mid Sept. 1963 when he decides, Marina will go back to Dallas, and he will go by bus to Mexico City, and then return to Dallas.

Ruth Paine drives her car to New Orleans --picks up Marina and all their belongings (including the rifle) and brings them back to Dallas.

Mr. Paine is there and helps unload the car in Dallas. Lee has left the attempted murder weapon in the hands of some-what strangers --or has put the rifle out of his control.

Ruth Paine:

Mr. JENNER - Now, in the process of removing everything other than the two duffel bags-on the occasion on the 24th of September 1963 when you reached Irving, Tex., did you find or see any long rectangular package? 

Mrs. PAINE - I recall no such package. 

Mr. JENNER - Did you see any kind of a package wrapped in the blanket?

Mrs. PAINE - Not to my recollection. 

Mr. JENNER - Did you see any package
Mrs. PAINE - I don't recall seeing the blanket either. 

Mr. JENNER - On that occasion?
Mrs. PAINE - On that occasion, not until later.

Michael Paine:

Mr. PAINE - I don't remember whether the date was September. I remember that was the date they came back from New Orleans and I do remember that my wife asked me to unpack some of their heavy things from their car. I only recall unpacking duffel bags but any other package, that was the heaviest thing there and they were easy also. 

Mr. LIEBELER - You must have moved the duffel bags from the station wagon into the garage? 
Mr. PAINE - That is right. I unpacked whatever was remaining in the station wagon to the garage.

So sometime later, I do remember moving about this package which, let's say, was a rifle, anyway it was a package wrapped in a blanket.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Yes, Moving this package around the garage...sometimes even stepping over it.

Michael Paine:

The garage was kind of crowded and I did have my tools in there and I had to move this package several times in order to make space to work, and the final time, I put it on the floor underneath the saw where the band saw would be casting dust on it and I was a little embarrassed to be putting his goods on the floor, but I didn't suppose, the first time I picked it up I thought it was camping equipment. I said to myself they don't make camping equipment of iron pipes any more.

Mr. LIEBELER - At the time you picked it up, at any time that you picked it up, did you have the idea that there might be more than two pipes inside the package. 
Mr. PAINE - Well, I would never have mentioned camping equipment, you see, without, you can't make anything without more than one pipe. 

Mr. LIEBELER - Think of the configuration of the package or of the way it acted when you moved it, was there any indication in that sense that there was more than one pipe inside. 
Mr. PAINE - No; I think it was a homogeneous, that is to say it didn't move one part with respect to another.

Ruth Paine:

Mr. JENNER - Was that about the appearance of the blanket wrapped package that you saw on your garage floor?
Mrs. PAINE - Yes; although I recall it as quite flat. 

Mr. JENNER - Flatter than it now appears to be?
Mrs. PAINE - Yes. But it is not a clear recollection. 

Mr. JENNER - That is 45 inches, approximately. You had no occasion when you stepped on the package-- 

Mrs. PAINE - I stepped over it. 

Mr. JENNER - You always stepped over it? 

Mrs. PAINE - Yes; until the afternoon of the 22d

Mr. JENNER - And how long after you returned to Texas did you notice that package in your garage? 

Mrs. PAINE - I said I thought it was late October perhaps. I wouldn't be at all certain about when I first noticed it.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Something else, something Michael Paine says to FrontLine in 1993

Paine told them, for the first time, that he had been shown one of the famous “backyard photos” on that night in April, 1963 when he first met Oswald.

FL: Why hadn’t he mentioned it before?
No one had asked him he claimed.

FL: At the time of seeing this picture, Lee told Michael that in the Soviet Union, a person could not own a rifle, but could own a shotgun, if they belonged to a recognized club. Michael got the impression that Lee clearly adored weapons, but did not make the connection that the weapons in the picture were actually owned by Lee.

WC --1964

"....the first time I picked it up I thought it was camping equipment. I said to myself they don't make camping equipment of iron pipes any more."