A police sniper potentially saved lives by shooting the rifle of the would-be assassin, a congressional report says.
  • @moody
    89•3 months ago

    Sounds like bullshit to me. Not that it’s impossible or anything, but it seems pretty late for this information to come out if it is true, especially after all the admissions of failings from the USSS, etc. You’d think that’s the kind of information that should have been mentioned right away. A month later, it sounds like they’re just making excuses and trying to make themselves sound good.

    • Chozo
      83•3 months ago

      You wouldn’t ever intentionally aim for the gun, you’d aim for the body in every single version of this scenario. If somebody’s got a rifle pointed at an ex-president, you’re not going for a warning/disarming shot.

      If it’s true, then all it means is that the USSS sniper also missed his first shot.

      • @jonne@infosec.pub
        21•3 months ago

        The article says it was a police sniper, ie. a local cop who probably doesn’t have the same amount of training. He also wasn’t actually positioned at a place where he could get a shot, so he ran to somewhere where he could actually hit the guy.

        A secret service sniper eventually killed him after the first shots were fired. Makes the secret service look even worse IMHO.

      • FuglyDuckEnglish
        12•3 months ago

        You wouldn’t ever intentionally aim for the gun, you’d aim for the body in every single version of this scenario.

        In any scenario using firearms. They’re lethal weapons. there’s no way to make them not lethal. (well. Ignoring things like rubber bullets.).

        Missing is too easy, and in any case, the only snipers not trained to shoot center mass are pretty much cops; where the ranges are much shorter, and you’re far more likely to have bystanders being held hostage or at risk if a torso-shot doesn’t immediately drop the subject.

        Even then, cops are going to go for center mass if they can. For example, Trump would be dead if the shooter had shot for center mass- assuming he wasn’t shooting for center mass.

        • @Nurgus@lemmy.world
          12•3 months ago

          The tendency of modern mass shooters to aim for the head seems to be the result of video game culture. So it’s quite likely that video games saved Trump’s life!

        • @Nurgus@lemmy.world
          6•3 months ago

          Even “rubber” bullets are surprisingly lethal. Cops are supposed to skip-fire them, ie shoot the floor so that they bounce into a group of rioters.

          • FuglyDuckEnglish
            7•3 months ago

            yep. there’s a reason they very quickly switched to describing them as “less lethal” rather than “non-lethal” Along with basically everything else.

            Turns out if it has enough stopping power to actually be useful, it can probably kill you if it’s used improperly and possibly kill you even if it is… funny how that works. sad that they still use them.

  • @givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    28•3 months ago

    The report comes as the Secret Service temporarily reassigns some bodyguards from President Joe Biden to Trump, according to US media.

    Uh…

    • subignition
      42•3 months ago

      Slightly further down in the article:

      The transfer of Secret Service agents is […] made possible by the reduced travel schedule of Mr Biden after he dropped out of the election race, according to a report in The New York Times. The reassigned officers were responsible for either travelling with Mr Biden, or going in advance of him to set up security measures at an event, a source told the newspaper.

  • @BigMacHole@lemm.ee
    11•3 months ago

    It’s a Good Thing the Gunman was a White Person trying to Assassinate a Political Candidate and not just a Black Kid in the Park!

  • @some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    8•3 months ago

    Trump will also be given bulletproof glass protection to allow him to resume outdoor rallies.

    […]

    Security levels around the former president have increased since then.

    I love thinking about how terrified he is to speak in public.

    He can’t rent out concert halls and the like, where security could be easily controlled, because his 2020 campaign racked up a bunch of unpaid debts when he cheated them thinking he’d never need them again. Now, he has to campaign out in the open. He’s famously afraid of germs and death. He knows there could be someone off in the distance wherever he goes. Chickenshit lives with the knowledge that someone nearly got him. Delicious.

    • Tiefling IRL
      7•3 months ago

      I really hope the PTSD expedites his dementia. I know both are TERRIBLE things to have and wouldn’t wish them on anyone else, but this motherfucker has zero sympathy from me. I look forward to pissing on his grave.