As far as we know, what happened today is that a gunman, on a roof of a low building (apparently one story) outside the rally security perimeter, shot at Donald Trump and either hit him with a grazing wound to the ear or, according to other reports, shattered the teleprompter plexiglass and shards of plexiglass struck his ear. Sort of same difference, slightly different modality.
It appears this person was firing at a relatively long range, estimates I’ve heard of 200 or 300 yards. The gunman would presumably need to plan in advance and find a rooftop from which he or she could get a direct line of sight to the stage. It’s apparently a low building in an area that is very flat. So you couldn’t assume you’d have a direct line of sight from a one story building. There’s some advance work required. Not everyone can shoot at that distance. (An AR-15 style weapon has reported been recovered at the scene.) So this isn’t a situation like getting a handgun and going into an unsecured environment which almost anyone can do. This requires planning in advance and some level of firearms knowledge. Not everyone could do this.
From our records the Trump campaign announced this event on July 3rd. So the date and location was known for at least ten days. That’s a relatively short window of time.
No particular message here, just my effort to think through the amount of advance work required, the time available to do it, and the kinds of skills required to make the attempt.
Late Update: Newer reports from CNN’s Evan Perez say that the building in question was more like 150 yards from the stage and apparently a building, unsecured, right outside the security perimeter. Don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. But there are going to be some pretty big questions why that rooftop wasn’t secured.
