[daseiner1]

This is a horrible thing, but sadly nothing new. Pardon the Wikipedia block quote:

> Four sitting presidents have been killed: Abraham Lincoln (1865, by John Wilkes Booth), James A. Garfield (1881, by Charles J. Guiteau), William McKinley (1901, by Leon Czolgosz), and John F. Kennedy (1963, by Lee Harvey Oswald). Additionally, two presidents have been injured in attempted assassinations: former president Theodore Roosevelt (1912, by John Schrank) and Ronald Reagan (1981, by John Hinckley Jr.)

If anything we’ve been “overdue”.

[dredmorbius]

Excepting Eisenhower and Johnson, every US president (or president-elect) has been subject to an assassination attempt dating back nearly a century to Herbert Hoover (1929--1933).

Shots have been fired at FDR, Truman, Kennedy(†), Ford, Reagan, Clinton, and yesterday.

Bombs or explosives have been placed or deployed against Hoover, Truman, Kennedy, GHW Bush, Clinton, GW Bush, and Obama.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presiden...>

[dredmorbius]

Clarifying: attempt or plot, though some physical action was taken against all but Eisenhower & Johnson, per Wikipedia.

[gnicholas]

It's not very common in the modern era, though I would add in RFK Sr., who was assassinated while running for president several decades ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Robert_F._Ken...

[LarsDu88]

6/45 presidents have been shot today.

Today that number is 7/45

So it went from 13% to 15%. Not only that, but firearms technology has advanced considerably. If anything, statistically speaking we've been incredibly lucky in the past 30 years

[sam_goody]

Being President is statistically the most dangerous job in the United States

Compared to other places (like ancient Greece that switched rulers twice a year).. I guess it's a risky job, but someone's gotta do it.

[Log_out_]

Have you considered exile? The populatuon majority declares you a dividing figure and banishes you for ten years from the (city)state(s). Very Preferable to civil war.

[spaceship__sun]

Curious how the shooter missed though. And just, how they seem to miss quite often in general.

[ultimafan]

Anecdotally, it seems like many people seem to underestimate how difficult accurate shooting actually is. I genuinely can't count the number of times I've taken someone interested in shooting out to the range for their first time and they get dismayed when they can't place accurate shots even at a fairly close range (<25 meters), from a sitting position, with a rifle rest and being able to aim as long as they want with no stress or pressure before firing.

The general pop culture opinion cultivated by movies, shows, video games, etc. seem to mislead a lot of people towards the idea that guns are just a "point and shoot" type of deal at any range in any situation. When the reality is like any other hobby it takes many many hours of practice and lots of $$$ worth of ammo to get to the point where you can consistently place shots on target at decent ranges and even then that's in a controlled environment with a paper target that doesn't move, no pressure on you, you're probably not firing standing up without a support etc.

[sanswork]

They also forget all those times they've gotten excited in a confrontation and started to shake. Trying to be accurate is hard. Trying to do it while pumping with adrenaline changes it to basically impossible.

[redeeman]

they say it was around 120 meters, the first time i picked up my rifle and went to the range, i was able to consistently put the shots within 4cm at 100 meters. a tiny bit training, and we are talking 5cm at 200 meters.

it is NOT hard. whats hard is from-the-hip shooting like you see in movies.

i dont mean to be (too) rude, but if you have problems hitting accurately at 25 meters with a rested rifle, you have some serious problems that you should probably get looked at (im thinking inability to hold steady etc)

[throwaaway45656]

In your situation you had no pressure at all. I imagine that even getting to the top of the roof without the police spotting hin is enough to give him an extremely high level of adrenaline that causes his body to start shaking.

In addition he knew that snipers and police were constantly watching roof tops, and if he poked his head out he may not have many seconds to actually raise his gun, aim and shoot.

I am not an expert, but I doubt you can compare your experience on the range to a kid full of adrenaline trying to take a shot at one of the most protected persons in the world. It's a completely different situation.

[ultimafan]

A consistent 4 cm at 100 meters your first time shooting, then a consistent 5 cm at 200 meters just a short time later is nothing short of a miracle. That's 1.3~ and 0.85~ MOA respectively.

Hell, many commercial and surplus rifles you buy will straight up NEVER shoot 1 MOA on their own as is even assuming you've clamped them perfectly to a table with no human input for error due to their construction.

[redeeman]

i use a 5 legged shooting rest, which is extremely effective.

my rifle is a 3006 with a cut barrel, and it is extremely precise. There are a couple of guys at my local range that can consistently(aka generally 4 out of 5) put hole-in-hole (with slight enlarging)

[more_corn]

Bullshit. In your delusional imagining what caliber rifle were you pretending to shoot with such superhuman accuracy? Did you sight it in yourself or did it just magically shoot straight when you clamped the rings down?

[redeeman]

the guys at the gun shop mounted the scope, and did the preliminary sighting, then at the range we put the rifle in a rifle holder, very sturdy thing, and did the final adjustments, and that was it.

also this is not superhuman, there are other guys at the range WAY better than me.

the caliber is 3006spr, with a cut barrel, nothing special. zeiss victory 2.8-20 56mm scope.

[sam_goody]

How long till we have gun stabilizing, sort of like image stabilization in cameras?

I do not know what it would take to do that, but even if it needs AI it doesn't sound too far off.

[czl]

Aim enhancing guns exist. Example: TrackingPoint Precision-Guided Firearms: uses a computer-controlled firing system Tracks targets and calculates variables like distance, wind, and angle. Only fires when the gun is perfectly aligned with the target Can hit moving targets at distances up to 1,200 yards

[Ekaros]

Electronic firing probably makes more sense. So you put ai/algo between pulling trigger/pressing button and actually bullet firing.

[dredmorbius]

At that point you might as well automate the whole gun.

<https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a37708762/...>

[frankzinger]

A former sniper said on CNN that it should've been so easy to hit from such a short distance that it could only have been "divine intervention" that saved Trump.

[ultimafan]

A former sniper would also have a few hundred to a few thousand hours more range time than a random member of the public. I wouldn't doubt that "easy" for someone like that would have a much different meaning than for everyone else.

[frankzinger]

He was saying it would've been easy for the shooter in question (ie, a random 20-year old).

Mind you, that former sniper was also a Republican congressman so I would not be surprised if he was just using the opportunity to build the Trump Messiah narrative.

[griffzhowl]

Apparently Crooks was rejected from his school rifle team for being such a bad shot they thought it would just be too dangerous if he participated...

[kelipso]

Latest news is that a local cop climbed up the ladder and saw him, he pointed his rifle at the cop, cop climbed back down, and he immediately pointed his rifle back at the at stage and started shooting at Trump. So he would've been panicking when he was shooting.

[comfysocks]

One report I heard said that someone (security?) went up to the roof to confront the shooter before he made his shots. The shooter pointed his rifle at this person who then backed down for cover. This might explain why the snipers got a fix on him so quickly.

One ex-USMC commentator on Bloomberg said that the shot wouldn’t have been very difficult at that range. As to why he missed, maybe the shooter had to rush his shots since he was spotted. Maybe he was just a bad shot. It was explained that he wasn’t accepted into his high school shooting team.

This is what I remember hearing while doom-browsing YouTube, so take with a grain of salt.

[christophilus]

It’s probably not easy to take careful aim while in a large crowd without someone noticing— especially since there are skilled professionals whose only job is to watch for people taking careful aim…

[qup]

Dude was on a roof. 400ft away

[spookie]

It was a kid out of highschool who had confronted a policeman just moments before. The guy was under a lot of pressure.

You know he wasn't that well trained when you see that he killed a bystander.

[defrost]

Less than 140 yards and missed?

Firstly needs to learn how to engage in politics w/out a gun. Also needs to practice.

Meanwhile, next door in Australia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEY00iJv4CQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6KJM-MODME but we're just farmers.

[Jensson]

> Less than 140 yards and missed?

Person aimed for the head, seems like he wasn't trained how to kill people.

Anyway, the person knew they would die seconds later, heavy breathing makes it is massively harder to aim when you are nervous, then it is easy to miss a moving head at 140 yards.

[spurgu]

Difficult to practice with your head full of adrenaline.

[s1artibartfast]

shooting is quite difficult in real life.

[LocalH]

"And what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure." - Thomas Jefferson, 1787

[cafard]

And what was TJ's attitude when New England cut up rough about the embargo?

[krapp]

Thomas Jefferson was nothing if not a massive hypocrite. He waxed eloquent about the nobility of violence done by other men to other men, but when the British showed up at Monticello he fled like a coward.

Unsurprising for a man who styled himself a yeoman farmer but had slaves and children do all of his work for him.

[comfysocks]

Maybe, but hopefully we can move towards a future with more voting and less violence.

[redeeman]

and maybe if we are really lucky, we could also move towards a future where candidates are allowed to be on the ballot, and shouldnt be kept off to "save democracy" - we must save democracy by disallowing people voting for who they want!

[bitnasty]

Or a future where the loser doesn’t desperately cling to power and incite violence to try to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

[comfysocks]

I actually agreed that Trump should be on the ballot back when that was a thing.

I guess my point is: if anyone thinks their grievances justifies violence, remember that the other side has grievances too.

We have free speech in the United States, so we are free to say things like “Biden is senile” or “Trump is anti-democratic.” But if we can’t exercise free speech and disagree without descending into violence, then it will be our downfall. Xi and Putin will be delighted. Maybe they’ll take over and we’ll have a system where saying the wrong thing gets you disappeared, strapped to a tiger chair, or thrown out of a window.

[therealdrag0]

Multiple Attacks and attempted attacks have happened in last 10 years even. A far right winger sent 16 mail bombs to democrats (including Biden and Obama) in 2018, and a dozen men tried to nap Michigan governed.