Police in Washington are investigating how a man ordered a color television set via Amazon and ended up with a high-powered semi-automatic assault rifle instead. Seth Horvitz, who lives in the north east district of the US capital, contacted police immediately after a parcel delivery service left the military-style Sig Sauer SIG716 at his apartment door.

 

"They were a little confused at first. They've never seen anything quite like it," he told Fox 5, a local television station.

 

"They just took my information and then said: 'We'll handle this weapon because it's illegal to keep here.' It's illegal to transport in a car, so it can't be returned."

 

While the box was addressed to Horvitz, who had ordered a flat-screen television from a third-party retailer via Amazon.com, an invoice（发票） inside the box suggested the gun was supposed to go to a Pennsylvania gun shop.

 

A spokesman for Washington's Metropolitan³ Police Department said that the case - which comes on the heels of two mass killings⁴ in the US in less than a month - remains⁵ under investigation⁶.

 

On its website, the US subsidiary of Sig Sauer, a major European firearms manufacturer that supplies guns to many US police forces, says the SIG716 is "the rifle of choice when you require the power of a larger calibre（口径，才干） carbine."

 

"We've seen in recent weeks the tremendous damage these guns can do," said Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which campaigns for greater gun control in the United States.

 

"We have to be better than a nation where assault weapons are so prevalent and can so easily end up in dangerous hands," he said in a statement. "It's deeply disturbing."

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