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Thomas Matthew Crooks did not do enough aim training.
From Wikipedia:
Crooks fired from a roof outside the rally venue using an AR-15–style semi-automatic rifle, firing eight rounds before being killed by a sniper from the Secret Service Counter Assault Team.
Dude had 8 fucking attempts. Thats almost too unbelievable.
Ok look without getting into the ethics of political violence that's embarrassing.
I am a baby with rifles, having only shot like 200 rounds? but I thought it was a low calibre rifle from the sound in the video and thought "wow decent accuracy from a 22 at 100 meters!". Like I struggle to land on the target at 50 with open sights.
But an assault rifle? really?
Anyway this post was about "he is dead" being an absurd thing to say in "what we know" don't shoot into crowds kids. That's not very nice.
I mean the guy was probably stressed the fuck out. I assume he had some sort of scope but who knows what psychological state he was in.
Yeah I imagine whatever your reasons it's probably a pretty stressful to carry out a suicide attack.
I read somewhere he only had iron sights
That seems like the kind of information only the feds would have access to.
Im somewhat skeptical that they would release that information, but i havent checked the news to the level of detail.
TMZ has a photo from someone at the event of the shooter on the roof. It's a good enough quality photo that you can see the rifle doesn't have a scope.
It was definitely not sourced so I'm doubtful too. But who would lie on the Internet ? ^/s
Don't they make .22 AR15 style rifles?
I think they're marketed to children
Idk, I live in a place where guns that look scary are banned and my interest is blackpowder and old timey low calibre target shooting /shrug
The AR-15 is nominally chambered in .223 Remington or 5.56×45mm NATO according to Wikipedia. Although some are chambered at 0.22. But typically gun makes targeted at children are not semi-automatic which is a feature of AR-15 style rifles.
While this is partially a safety concern, I remember target shooting alternatively with a pump-action and a semi-auto and my cousin and I would be tempted to lose our temper with an evasive target and mag-dump. With the pump action I didn't have the option but to aim every time.
It has to be hard to hit an ear from that distance, in fact, I would say near impossible.
Right, like he was never meant to kill trump.
Ok, the conspiracy shit is already old. 0% chance it was rigged.
You mean the party known for lying and falsification didn't have an assassin plant meant to take the fall for the planned assassination attempt against the fascist presidential candidate in order to further bolster the support from his allies and voters?
There's no way this wasn't staged. And quite frankly, if the repubs are allowed to make up stuff, so is everyone else.
I mean I don't think you can shoot an just ear even as a controlled joke, much less from that distance...
quite frankly, if the repubs are allowed to make up stuff, so is everyone else.
Log off. Please log off, you are doing significant brain damage to yourself.
You actually think Donald Trump agreed to put himself in the firing line of a gun with live ammo? People died bud. Think more critically.
it's a 20 year old dude, almost a kid, who has a documented historical record of being SHIT at aiming.
why the fuck would they get THAT person to botch an assassination? What if he tried to miss and accidentally hit instead?
Just like the 2020 election
I wouldn’t say 0% chance, but I agree that it is unhealthy to jump straight to conspiratorial thinking. Especially given just how little we know at this point.
Jet fuel can't shoot steel BBs!
you need to lay off the petrol sniffing mate.
also a registered republican!
But he donated to a pro Biden PAC!
$15 dollars.
What someone was registered as has no bearing on his leaning on the political spectrum. Only which primary he was allowed to vote in. I don’t under stand why people are so fast to try to say what party he is with. Either way you know he was anti trump, which is for all intense and purposes anti republican. Actions speak louder than words
Look, I'm all about avoiding unnecessary speculation, but being registered as a Republican is a very strong indicator of where they stand on the political spectrum. I don't know why we are pretending that this isn't fairly conclusive. It's not like he changed party affiliation as a psyop, he's been registered as a Republican for nearly three years.
I don't know why he tried to kill Trump, but let's not pretend that these details don't matter.
That makes me curious if there's been studies on the typical percentage of people who register with a different party than the one they typically vote for. Especially comparing closed primary states (like Pennsylvania) to open primary states. Closed primaries clearly disincentivize registering independent but I could also see people believing it's advantageous to cross-register, especially when your preferred party is incumbent or when in a state that consistently votes the opposite way as you.
Sadly, that doesn't matter to them - at least from what I've seen, the predominating narrative among rightists and "centrists" is that he only registered Republican to sabotage/protest-vote in their primaries, and that therefore he's actually far-left Antifa did it.
* intents and purposes
If he was older I'd say he was trying to save the republican party from trump. I remember their disgust with him before he started winning, and even after by a few who have brand points in respectability.
I guess the sarcasm was not obvious.
I was mocking what will presumably be a Republican talking point as a 15 dollar donation is immensely inconsequential.
I agree with you that party registration is basically meaningless for a 20 year old who seems to have not even ever voted, nor has any as of yet evidenced strong political beliefs voiced privately or publicly.
As of right now, the shooter does not seem to have been very politically involved either way and is being portrayed as basically socially awkward and picked on in high school.
If the person had a long history of political involvement either way or had published a manifesto or something like that, that may be worth discussing, but so far there is nothing to indicate any kind of strong ideological motive, more along the lines of 'troubled young adult has nothing to live for, decides to try and become famous and/or die trying.'
I've commented about this elsewhere, but the experiences, beliefs and opinions that radicalize ad hoc shooters typically are very removed from their choice of target. Though, heck, he might have written or recorded a manifesto somewhere. Otherwise he was sick and tired of living a life that sucks and just wanted to express pure rage.
Political operatives look for guys like this to turn into assassins and terrorists. Militant groups of the transnational white power movement looke for guys like this at earlier stages for recruits for counterprotests, harassing marginalized groups and liberal voters and other violence to serve their cause.
And knowing this, calling him a republican is kinda reductive and early. Because “my side would never do an assassination, because we all are above that” Is not a rational statement. But assuming he was successful… how would this further the White lower movement?
The guys neighbors were all talking about how they were planning on going to the rally if it wasn't so hot out. I'm guessing there's deeper issues going on than just political. Trump supporters are insufferable and I'm guessing his dad and everyone else around him is a POS.