If it wasn’t summer, this guy probably would have ended up in a schoolyard rather than a political rally. Political motivation may have nothing to do with it.
Thank god it wasn’t an immigrant.
The uncertainty surrounding Biden may have pushed the shooter into taking action.
There’s a perception that Trump has locked up a win for reelection. It’s dangerous when it appears that the election process is broken.
The voters need to believe that our system isn’t broken. That the next President hasn’t been already choosen.
I expect the Secret Service will severely limit Trump’s appearances until the election. Keeping him safe is a priority over his desire to hold public events.
What makes you think he was aiming up at the stage when he was firing from a roof? Plus, Trump clearly was surrounded by devotees, including on bleachers behind him.
I haven’t seen a diagram showing the positions of the people involved.
I hope that comes out today.
I didn’t see anyone else on stage react like they were hit. But, perhaps that’s what happened. The bullet that nicked Trump went somewhere.
It’s surprising the Secret Service snipers missed this guy until he fired. Several witnesses have said they told police he was crawling up there.
One of the local candidates seated near Trump said people behind him were struck.
Also, an outdoor venue makes failure to fill it to capacity somewhat easier to obfuscate – no built-in seating sections left empty.
From the article posted by hajario:
That’s helpful thanks. He had a direct shot at Trump. 400 ft isn’t very difficult with a scope. Major screw up by the Secret Service.
I expect the other casualties will be added later. Families need to be notified first.
Until recently, militaries trained to hit from several hundred yards with iron sights.
In trained hands, 400 ft. is handgun range.
I do. Trump portrays himself as a Successful Business Man, the Former President, the Real President, a Lady’s Man (Adulterer), a Liar, a Saviour, and a Victim. That’s seven ‘heads’, right? And he’ll undoubtedly claim he was mortally wounded but got better. See the Revelation 13:3-6. 
Handgun range? No. Not the effective range, anyway. Easily within rifle range using just iron sights? Yes. I qualified on an Army range with targets out to 300 meters back in 2010 (this was the standard at the time, and may still be today). Not that I could have hit a head-sized target with iron sights at that range, but then again maybe I could have at closer to 100-150 meters. Especially if I had multiple shots (the way the Army range works is you only get one shot per pop-up or else you run out of ammo).
I suspect the evidence will show that this particular shooter didn’t zero in his sights and/or scope.
That’s the same thing I was thinking. I used to subscribe to Demo Ranch just to watch them shoot stuff, but it got boring after a while (and his thumbnails, IIRC, were getting really click baity). If Matt(?) is a republican it wouldn’t surprise me, but politics weren’t part of the channel, at least not when I was watching it.
If you just want to watch people shooting stuff with big guns, it’s not a bad channel to watch. Come to think of it, I did catch a recent-ish video of his where a gun blew up in someone’s hand. It wasn’t pretty.
Multiple hits out to 200 yards. Granted, the groups were large at 200 but the 100 yd groups were “minute of body”.
The point is that the Secret Service allowed a shooter to get close enough to use a handgun let alone a rifle.
Major screw-up.
Umm… I think you have an extra zero in there. Not that I wouldn’t find cover. VERY lucky shots do happen (Its gonna hit something after all).
If anyone cares to know, an AR-15 ‘type’ rifle is most likely a .223 . So basically a .22 in diameter. But longer and heavier, and blazingly fast compared to a standard .22 .
This article has a better, less cluttered diagram and shows where the spectator benches were as well. Not just directly behind, but also slightly to either side, with one set of benches (to Trump’s left, having his back to the benches) appearing to be down range in the shooter’s line of fire towards Trump:
As I said above I’ve been involved in 3 presidential security details. I could say several to make it sound more important. The one for Bush in Iraq isn’t comparable. One in particular was in an open area. The SS visited every building in line of sight and warned everyone to not go on the roof to watch. A few people did and were immediately spotted by the SS and chased off. There were a lot of buildings to watch. A lot more than there were in Pennsylvania. Someone really screwed up and it all falls on the Secret Service. Local law enforcement is in charge of nothing and takes all orders from the Secret Service.
I keep thinking they must have had some drones up for aerial surveillance… how could they miss a guy laying on a rooftop?
White man toting a gun in Trump-loving rural Pennsylvania. What’s remarkable about that?
Still no manifesto from the shooter.