# Companion Thread to Shots Fired at White House Correspondents' Dinner **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [April 26, 2026, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559 "2026-04-26T02:03:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/121 "2026-04-27T07:44:31Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Assuming Trump’s Ballroom had been built, I doubt that the WHCA would be using it. They’d likely continue to use the Hilton, as they have for years This is an excellent point. But it’s beyond the comprehension of the Orange One. Wallowing in dementia, he believes that the WHCA dinner will be held in whatever venue he decrees. The idea that this is an independent association that has nothing to do with him directly, and to which he is only an invitee, cannot penetrate whatever is left of his diminishing cognition. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/122 "2026-04-27T08:15:54Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > The idea that this is an independent association that has nothing to do with him directly That’s what he can’t grasp about anything. He believes he’s in control of the whole universe. He even thinks he’s in control of the NFL. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/123 "2026-04-27T08:28:20Z")
And that has nothing to do with any real or imagined cognitive impairment. It’s Trump being Trump with a heaping helping of main character syndrome. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/124 "2026-04-27T13:06:03Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > He took a train across the country from CA to DC: passengers are not required to declare weapons on Amtrak. I expect there will now be calls for airport-level security on trains. I’m surprised there isn’t already. Not that I’m in favor of performance security everywhere but pretty sure there will be calls for it. I mean - screw school kids, they’ll just need to practice duck’n’cover more but VIPs? Security, security, security for _them._ > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > And if the gun lobby got its way, people might be able to walk around openly armed just outside the venue. Unless the venue is full of the Ruling Elite - _they_ will get Secret Service, perimeters, metal detectors, etc. They don’t care if the rest of us are shot, but they’ll see that they themselves have protection. > [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > No, you definitely do need to inform Amtrak if you are transporting firearms in your baggage. Advance notice required and many other requirements. Yes. That’s the official line. However, as someone who regularly rides Amtrak there is NO actual security searches prior to boarding. In my 40+ years of riding Amtrak on only two occasions have officers boarded a train with dogs presumably trained to sniff out _something_ - drugs? Explosives? Donuts? If something suspicious is reported then yes, security shows up to search people and luggage and I’m sure there are behind-the-scenes and non-obvious security but by and large if you act cool and calm you can bury a gun in the middle of your luggage, get on a train, and never be troubled. I have no doubt that if security _finds a gun_ that is undeclared they’ll do something about it and you both. The key being _find a gun._ Or other weapon. Handguns would be the easiest to conceal. Long guns would probably require some disassembly, which would also make them unusable until put back together. > [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Not clear how rigorously Amtrak rules were enforced. In my experience there’s a hefty dose of the honor system involved. Amtrak will enforce the rules when they find a violation. Again, key word is _find._ ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/125 "2026-04-27T13:19:17Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > > [@penultima\_thule](#): > > > > Can somebody with better access to this sort of detailed stuff confirm that the Secret Service physically removed JD Vance from the auditorium `before` they went back to gather & remove 45/47? > > > > And, if so, why would the security of principals be done in that sequence? > > Looks to me like there was no “order” for the removals. They wanted to get them both out and Vance was more accessible and also Trump stumbled and halfway fell. From the video I’ve seen someone physically grabbed Vance and literally pulled him out of his seat. Vance managed to keep his feet and might have been nearer to the exit. Trump, being older and… let’s be charitable, probably less agile…seems to have gone down and agents opted for a meatshield defense briefly before getting him away to safety. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/126 "2026-04-27T15:12:04Z")
I wish he would have gotten up and did a fist pump. That would have been so stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/127 "2026-04-27T15:16:25Z")
There seems to be a lot of discussion on CNN today about what went wrong to allow the shooter to get so close to the POTUS. I don’t agree. He never got past the security checkpoint, which was one floor above the ballroom. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/128 "2026-04-27T15:21:39Z")
Exactly. He didn’t come close to breaching the first line. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/129 "2026-04-27T15:23:55Z")
CNN will be breathlessly analyzing it until the next shiny thing passes by. They’ve got 24 hours to fill every day. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/130 "2026-04-27T15:29:06Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > a lot of discussion on CNN today about what went wrong to allow the shooter to get so close to the POTUS. I don’t agree. He never got past the security checkpoint Makes it sound like CNN expects the security cordon should make it impossible to just exist with a gun anywhere within a block of where POTUS is. Which by extension is where _they_ are. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/131 "2026-04-27T15:34:05Z")
> [@JoePockets](#): > > From what I seen of the video it appears there was no chance for get to his targets! He basically bump rushed the gate and was taken down 25ft afterwards! It’s amazing he is still alive to do a life sentence. Trump is right about saying the guy has to be a nutcase ! His only accomplishment is he sent 2000 people home to forage for dinner. Life sentence? Trying to kill the president does not usually carry a life sentence. I will cite Squeaky Fromme and John Hinckley as examples. Both tried to kill presidents, one with a bomb and one actually succeeded in hitting the president with gunfire, and yet both are out of jail currently and free. So apparently trying to kill the president does not merit a death sentence nor a life sentence. I expect this tradition to be upheld… Although I doubt it will. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/132 "2026-04-27T15:34:29Z")
If shooting trump was his objective, why did he discharge his weapon where he did? He threw his life away for nothing. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/133 "2026-04-27T15:36:02Z")
Sorry if I’m not keeping up, but are we sure who fired the shots? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/134 "2026-04-27T15:37:46Z")
Did you read his manifesto? His final thoughts are about how incompetent the secret service is, because he didn’t see them in force. Dude was supremely arrogant, thought that as a twenty-something engineering tutor he had outwitted the most competent protective detail in human history. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/135 "2026-04-27T15:38:34Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > why did he discharge his weapon where he did? That’s where he was confronted. My hypothetical is this was a failed suicide-by-cop plan, not counting that in a crowded indoors security would not just open up. ---
**Author:** ![doomtastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@doomtastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doomtastic)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/136 "2026-04-27T16:44:40Z")
I think a good deal of the problem we’re experiencing here is that actual security does not match the popular expectation of security (I.e. how it is in the movies). So even when it worked as it was supposed to in this instance, it “feels” like it failed because it didn’t conform to expectations. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/137 "2026-04-27T17:18:04Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > Life sentence? Trying to kill the president does not usually carry a life sentence. The guy from the golf course in Florida [received a life sentence](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/ryan-wesley-routh-sentenced-life-prison-attempted-assassination-president-donald-j-trump-and). But he represented himself at the trial, and the judge was Aileen Cannon. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/138 "2026-04-27T22:03:09Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > Life sentence? Trying to kill the president does not usually carry a life sentence. > > I will cite Squeaky Fromme and John Hinckley as examples. Squeaky Fromme was sentenced to life, but paroled after spending 32 years in prison. John Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity by a jury. He spent 40 years in an institution. And to add the one you forgot, Sara Jane Moore was sentenced to life for attempting to kill Gerald Ford, and spent 32 years in prison. Granted the accused may not actually spend their entire lives in prison, but that’s up to the parole board, not the prosecutor, judge, or jury. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/139 "2026-04-27T22:53:17Z")
> [@doomtastic](#): > > I think a good deal of the problem we’re experiencing here is that actual security does not match the popular expectation of security (I.e. how it is in the movies). So even when it worked as it was supposed to in this instance, it “feels” like it failed because it didn’t conform to expectations. I don’t watch this kind of movie, but what you say makes sense. In a drama, there would be multiple levels of security, where each time you get past one excitement is ramped up. What makes it little more complicated is that the multi-level security concept doesn’t just sound good to the lay ear – it is also a general approach the Secret Service claims to use: [Security officials cite ‘multi-layered protection’ at hotel that hosted the correspondents’ dinner](https://www.abc10.com/article/news/nation-world/hotel-security-white-house-correspondents-association-dinner-shooting-attack/507-74f02208-8a5e-4a7b-833f-9024990bfe08) The problem with multi-level security here is that there is a right to keep and bear arms in D.C. – except within security perimeters, on one side of which you have a right to a loaded gun, and on the other side of which you do not. The other levels of security cannot help but be ineffective. I wonder if another level of security was to obtain lists of hotel guests and pick out a few who were the most hostile to Trump in social media posts. If they did that, it obviously was a waste of time, and a possible threat to civil liberties. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559/140 "2026-04-27T22:55:20Z")
Yeah, I figured someone would come in and correct me. My main point stands, though…nobody who is still living who has tried to assassinate a US president is in jail…they are free. Stands to reason this guy, provided he lives long enough, would eventually be free too. You’re right, it is up to juries and parole boards and judges…but if they stayed consistent, it would be handled the same, in a perfect world. But something tells me that will never happen. In fact, with the shit administration we have now, it would not surprise me if they tried to go for the death penalty. No matter, I am not posting in this thread again, I merely wanted to point out the fact that previous cases of this resulted in the people eventually being free again. If that ever happens in this case, I’ll eat my underwear. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companion-thread-to-shots-fired-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/1029559.md?page=8)