Shots fired at Trump during rally

Yes basically this. A human torso at chest level is much larger than 6 inches. Add to that your shooting a 78 year old and it's basically a turkey shoot.

 

Trump did move his head at the right time which is kind of what wild pigs do so you aim for the bigger parts. We’ll always have the fact that Trump moved his head, regardless if I think he pulled the shot. What Helix says about the groupings is very reasonable for range shooting.

 

That's how you can pretty readily determine the kid was just some loner untrained 20 year old, and not part of some conspiracy. Anyone who knows what they're doing isnt aiming at his head, unless that's all you can see.

 

That’s all we shoot for on hogs, right behind the ear. Drops em on spot. That’s why I’m not sure about the timeline of the shots. It’s not that quick to locate by sound from 100 plus yards and head shoot something.

 

Yes. Also what makes you wonder. How is someone getting within realistic handgun range of a president during a campaign rally? I'm far from a delta force operator but you can bet anyone with any type of real life experience would have had everything within a few hundred yards covered. Not just that but he apparently had the high ground, able to crawl up a roof without being seen. Heads need to roll after this because that is simply unacceptable. Guy literally could have hit him with a slingshot bolt.

 

The guy was aiming for his head. He wanted to make a splash on television. A head-size target (the 6” plate part) is a very, very easy shot at 150 yards with a milspec rifle and ammo.

 

Apparently a local officer went on to the roof to investigate the reports of an armed man on the roof. Crooks pointed his gun at the officer who backed away. Then he turned to shoot at Trump. Gunman pointed rifle at local officer before firing at Trump during rally, sources tell AP

 

Jesus. They had time to send a cop up there? And then the cop didn’t shoot the guy who pointed a gun at him? Good lord.

 

Complete breakdown on communication too. First thing they should have done upon getting my the report was to get Trump off the stage

 

Seems on brand from what I've seen of police lately. Not people who want to protect and serve, just people who want a decent paycheck, job security and a pension.

 

Interesting observation….

“Former Lieutenant Tim McMillan, who said he has collaborated with several presidential and vice presidential security details, suggested the fault may lie with the “typically limited lines of communication” between Secret Service agents and local law enforcement on the ground. Lt McMillan said the agency employs “a multi-tiered defence in depth approach to protective missions”.

An inner tier offers close personal protection of Trump; a middle tier, composed largely of local law enforcement, is tasked with identifying and preventing “mid-range threats”; and an extended tier, including snipers, covers long distance threats.

“The counter sniper team, known by the code name “Hercules,” uses long-range binoculars and sniper rifles. This final tier, Lt McMillan speculated, may have failed to identify the gunman because its snipers “were scanning for threats at great distances well beyond the roughly 150 metres the threat appeared”.

This is evidenced by the fact that the elevated counter sniper has to dramatically drop his line of sight to respond to the shooter,” he said in a social media post.”


Trump security was warned about gunman four minutes before shooting, witness claims

 

This interaction may explain why the shots missed Trump.

 

The fault lies with the fact that a dude was able to literally climb a ladder and crawl across a roof with a rifle, then set long enough to take at least a reasonably accurate shot from 100 yards away in what appears to be an area with few buildings. If I'm in charge of a security detail there a sniper would have already been posted on that roof looking at him with a disapproving stare as he crawled, it's not like there's a budget issue.

As they say, complacency kills. In this case luck saved the day, as the only thing that causes this level of failure is decades of complacency.

As someone who doesn't care for Biden I genuinely hope he gets far, far better security than this. This will be a case study for 100 years.

 

Ouch, the timeline lags are a horrible look.

 

Agree. If one of us were literally put in charge weeks in advance and saw a map of the complex, we would say, ok priority have someone on those roofs.

 

Secret Security Leads choice of berries tonight:

 

The Secret Service has been a shit show for a while. A lot of turnover and dysfunction. Maybe this will wake people up.

 

I don’t know the specifics of presidential protection, but I suspect there’s a substantially greater than zero chance that Trump may be wearing a vest or ultra-light chest and back plates.

 

In short they operate on different frequencies but liaise in an operations center. Local LE calls it in and ss officer is listening and can immediately relay that information to whoever they determine needs to hear it. Saying this was a massive failure is an understatement. That building should have literally been the first point of vulnerability covered. Elevated and unobstructed los. Can’t explain how bad of a F up that is. It’s mind blowingly bad as to how that could happen. To me this is borderline bad movie fiction where you leave and say “the secret service would never do that for real. That’s ridiculous “ but in this case they did.

Smaller point, but good lord the one agent who was so nervous she couldn’t reholster her service pistol needs to be pulled from that detail and reassigned.

 

I'm sure he is but the force of a high caliber rifle center mass at 123 yards on a 78 year old would either kill from blunt force or simply penetrate. Vests are not made to stop high powered rifles and getting shot is still not a walk in the park.