In your option on a scale of 1 to 10 - how badly did the Secret Service screw up?
I'm not a gun guy and I've been lazy (I only read the very short article) but to me it seems like a 10/10 "What the fuck were they thinking?" screw up.
Sniper shot at former President Donald Trump from 130 yards away on roof of manufacturing plant
130 yards? That's it? From a prone position on a rooftop in perfect weather. What was the shooter crosseyed? God damn.
The SS certainly fucked up though. They have unlimited resources and couldn't even bother to have a guy sit up there any twiddle his thumbs. The roof of a building with a perfect vantage from which to fuck up perhaps the world's easiest shot apparently.
USA TODAY NETWORK...
How accurate is an AR-15 at that distance?
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Edit
My wild hunch is that it actually wasn't an AR-15. In the rush to get a scoop - information was garbled and then it was media copypasta city.
An AR-15 would be perfectly fine at 130 yards. Without even any fancy optics or scopes or anything, just iron sights.
To your other points, the shooter didn't fire many rounds, I'm going to guess the rifle was an SKS.
If the gun is set up right the it'll pretty much hit the exact same spot every time.
Information wasn't garbled, it's the media war on guns, with the AR pattern rifle being used as a scape goat.
"See, see, even your precious Trump was assasinated with your beloved AR15!" Media asshats would love to print that.
Nevermind they have no idea what an AR15 is, nor semi-auto, auto, machine gun, etc.
And yet here we have a crazy, non-conservative attempting to assassinate a president.
Any rifle at that distance is sufficiently accurate for anyone with a little training.
That's like level 1 rifle distance.
A carbine is accurate at that distance.
You'd think the protocol would be to have spotters looking for such things, with just a couple strategically placed riflemen ready to take out someone like that, once spotted.
That would be my approach, after Kennedy.
Yes, they first protect the target, but why not both? A professional marksman wouldn't likely miss someone like this amateur.