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'American Sniper' widow awarded over $60,000 from rifle auction

One of the five auctioned rifles was a replica of the McMillan .338 Lapua sniper rifle used by former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle in Iraq.

By Fred Lambert

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- The widow of a former Navy SEAL sniper depicted in the recent box-office hit, American Sniper, was on Friday awarded tens of thousands of dollars from a rifle auction.

Taya Kyle was at the 2015 SHOT Show in Las Vegas to promote the recent film about her late husband when she was surprised with the news: Her family was being awarded $62,000 from five rifles auctioned off by AmericanSniper.org, a non-profit organization made up of former military and police marksmen.

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One of the weapons was a replica of the McMillan .338 Lapua sniper rifle used by Chris Kyle in Iraq, where over the course of four combat deployments the SEAL was credited with 160 confirmed kills.

"I don't even know what to say," Taya Kyle said in a YouTube video of the moment. "It's been a bittersweet journey, obviously, and I do feel that Chris is with me, but I'm also very aware...that physically we all want him here."

Chris Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield were killed on a gun range in Texas in 2013. A former Marine has been accused of murdering the two.

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