The July 13th shooter explained

I don't think Butler was Crooks' hometown.

was it a suicide by cop scenario? or in this case suicide by SS

A suicide method in which his suicidal individual deliberately behaves in a threatening manner with intent to provoke a lethal response from a public safety or law enforcement officer to end their own life

But famous person comes to tiny small town. Incel gets on roof.

Various wings of the extreme right have come out harshly against trump in the previous few weeks. Particularly over the Epstein connections and his perceived friendliness to Jews.

Why was he wearing a black American flag? Is that the symbol of the extreme right or not? It always looks so creepy and Un-American

I think you're wrong OP. I think they are covering up his Qanon motive.

The shooter was a registered republican who had a car full of sophisticated explosives. He was intensely bullied in school, belonged to a gun club and died wearing the merch he bought from a right wing youtube channel that celebrates gun ownership and use. The home he lived in had Trump flags on the lawn and several guns in the house. His weapon was an automatic rifle, the preferred MAGA weapon. Even in high school, he was described as very conservative. His motives have not been determined, but it all points to an extremely unstable, 20 year old white male who was steeped in MAGA culture. Alex Jones told his viewers that the ideal situation would be if someone killed trump and forced the blue/red war to begin. Chances are he subscribed to that view.

But we don't know and we might never know. WHAT WE DO KNOW is the kid was firmly and exclusively a product of MAGA culture. MAGA owns this

You see, school shootings are just too commonplace now. Barely make the news. He had to do something much bigger to get himself killed and be famous forever. You can be sure his incel buddies are paying attention. To be really famous you have to shoot at a political figure.

Thanks to Republicans, he had all the military grade weapons he wanted. And so do his incel buddies.

HI OPRAH!

[Quote] WHAT WE DO KNOW is the kid was firmly and exclusively a product of MAGA culture. MAGA owns this

and before MAGA who owned Sandy Hook, Columbine, Aurora, Colorado, Virgina Tech . . .and who owns this year's violent Fourth of July weekend in Chicago with 109 shot,19 fatally?

I don’t want excuses, I want to finally see results!

Jesus, r10 you're *so* protective of your precious MAGA.

[quote]r10 = and before MAGA who owned Sandy Hook, Columbine, Aurora, Colorado, Virgina Tech

the NRA

and the NRA owns politicians on both sides of the aisle.

[quote]and the NRA owns politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Pulling out the bothsides card, r14? Our side doesn't wear gun pins in their lapels.

He was an incel,

R15 and what has the side that doesn't wear gun pins done about crime and violence other than to give lip service every time there's a mass shooting? And there have been thousands of them in the last 30 years. There were 656 mass shootings in 2023 alone.

He lived in Bethel Park which is a nice area and I agree with all of r7's points.

[quote]and what has the side that doesn't wear gun pins done about crime and violence other than to give lip service every time there's a mass shooting?

Well, r17, if you were trying to hide the fact that you're a troll, you just blew your cover, LoL.

Thank you R12 but I'm not Jesus and blaming everything on Trump, Maga and white supremacy hasn't helped the Biden campaign much. Biden is still President, and he needs to preside not just point fingers.

Again, R19 what have the Dems done about violence, crime and gun control?

What do you expect them to do, r21?

answering a question with a question means you have no answer: facts, examples or details

This is what I think happened. Do you remember the guy that stormed into the pizza place in Jersey because he believed that Hillary was trafficking kids thru the place in the basement? He went to free the kids but then found out there was no basement and that he had been fooled. He did it because he probably hated Hillary but couldn't stand the idea of kids suffering. I would guess that guy had been bullied or abused as a child and wanted to set those children free.

This latest shooter admired Trump and was all for him. I read that something had happened and he had become disillusioned with Trump. It was the week the Epstein files came out and showed us that Trump was a pedophile. I think that guy saw that and it upset him because those kids had things done to them that they had no control over so he decided to end Trump. I know a lot of you don't think younger people think and have no feelings for others but you are wrong, there are plenty that do and especially those that had things done to them as child that they had no control over.

Frankly with the Rethug opposition, r23, our hands are tied regarding meaningful legislation. That's why I asked you what you thought they could do that they aren't.

OP, nobody asked.

R25 what did they try to do that was thwarted? Any specifics? That's all.

r27 - You obviously haven't been paying attention.

Thank you R28. No I haven't paid attention since I've never been a gun owner nor is anyone in my family and live in a state that has fairly strict gun laws. However state and local police departments are not legally obligated to enforce federal gun laws as per the U.S. Supreme court ruling in Prinz v. United States (1997)

Well, r29, you said the NRA was paying off both sides and as I said, it hasn't been a bothsides issue. The Democrats have been trying to get meaningful gun legislation passed. But as you said, you haven't been paying attention.

Sorry, R30 I guess not. The Dems failed to get most of the gun control legislation they wanted to pass. That's politics as usual.

R20, he didn't blame everything on Trump and white supremacy. Try again. But Republicans sure like to blame "the libs" for everything they don't like. They're even trying to blame "the libs" for this shooting even though the shooter was a Republican

Repeal teh second Amendment and take away their fucking guns. And if that ends with a million dead Texans, well the world will be a better and safer place.

ANd if that seems callous, the fact is that every single one of those million fantasize nonstop about murder. They haven't done it, most of them, but that fantasy prevents real political dialogue

Nah. We'll probably never know who was behind it. Deep State? Foreign operatives?

Who killed JFK?

A patsy with a magic bullet?

A quiet 20 year old kid with no social media presence but who was strangely on a Blackrock video until it was deleted off YouTube?

Guns don't compromise, which is what I mean when I say our democracy has been gone for a long time.

R32 I forgot "the rich who don't pay their fair share of taxes"

All of this unfolded on Friday the 13th. Not everyone was lucky.

This guy makes no sense. A registered Repub but gave money to Dem candidates. Was he registering to play spoiler or make sure Trump didn’t win it again?

I am beginning to think it was suicide by cop. He didn't have much internet presence and he mostly played video games. He doesn't sound like an Incel. They usually have a group of other incels to talk to. His parents were Trump supporters and had lawn signs.

How did a kid with no known military training outfox the Secret Service and local law enforcement?

If elites love GOP and the idea of Trump - but hate his unpredictability, stupidity, and self-interested unideological nature - them taking him out to make him a martyr to make sure he doesn't fuck anything up as they ascend toward the handmaidens tale or whatever sort of makes sense. As a martyr, his image can still be used to control the cult. I think the shooter really might have been a patsy. Not covering the roof just makes no fucking sense when you see the map.

[quote] His parents were Trump supporters and had lawn signs.

Wasn’t his mother a registered Democrat and the father was a libertarian?

[quote] Repeal teh second Amendment and take away their fucking guns.

You can’t, Boris.

R42 It was the SS Director's decision not to place snipers on the sloped roof that the shooter climbed up on and used for as his sniper position. Yet it was considered a risk to put agents on that roof? WTF!!!

Embattled Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle says she has no plans to resign, even after the stunning revelation that the agency decided not to guard the roof from which Thomas Crooks opened fire on former President Donald Trump because it was too slanted.

The NY Post causes cancer of the soul

he was already in a commercial.

doubt he was hungry for that much fame...

if he was hungry for clicks, he would’ve live-streamed it

Isn't if tunny that nobody could ascribe a political motive to Lee Harvey Oswald either.

If only there was a Tony winning musical which explained why people try to assassinate the President

[quote] and before MAGA who owned Sandy Hook, Columbine, Aurora, Colorado, Virgina Tech . . .and who owns this year's violent Fourth of July weekend in Chicago with 109 shot,19 fatally?

So glad you asked. the Second Amendment fundamentalists are a core part of the Fascist/ Republican party coalition and are a precursor to and the sick womb that gestated and spat out MAGA. Most of the gun portion of the party are prone to anger and have had that vulnerability stoked by cynical republican politicians for the past 40 years. Now they own the people that created them.

Often these passionate, gullible souls also identify with the Christo-Fascist "America First" nationalist movement. This gang know as much about global security and how to create is as they do about the actual Second Amendment, but that doesn't stop them from fervently supporting grotesque levels of gun rights legislation and completely ignorant and self destructive isolationist policies. Again the corrupt uterus that gave birth to MAGA

Corporatists are still a core part of the donor class for the American Nazi Party (MAGA) because they are not entirely comfortable supporting Democrats who are strong believers in self-governance, despite their flaws.

OP is correct. Oswald tried to kill right wing General Walker and Richard Nixon before he got JFK. Politics was irrelevant. A 23yo loser who wanted fame by assassination. Now everyone knows his middle name. Mission accomplished.

No it's very relevant. He wouldn't have tried to shoot Walker and JFK who were politically opposite. Most likely he was employed by Walker and the claim of shooting Walker (which he missed by the way, at close range when the target was in light and he was in dark) was a fake.

Indeed, nothing was as telling as an indictment of the Warren Commission, as the obsequious way they treated Walker, an insurrectionist.

Conspiracy theories make stupid people like R52 feel smart.

the word "conspiracy" simply means — more than one person agree to break a law

the word "conspire" is a next-door neighbor to "inspire"

R55 has Google.

Bullshit, OP. Total bullshit. He had a motive that went way beyond something as simplistic as killing someone famous.

R56 – didnt even haveta look up anythang

'conspiracy theory' finger-pointers are like those little cunts from the crucible

Question: Why is every event known by its date, now? "January 6th". "October 7th." Is this going to known as "July 13th," from now on?

I guess "9/11" was the first time this happened. Pearl Harbor was usually referred to as "Pearl Harbor," by my parents, not "December 7th". D Day was not called "June 6th." The Kennedy assassination was not knows as "November 22nd."

r59, tell that to bono...

R59 I think it is definitely the 9/11 effect. 9/11 is catchy and along with the dumbing down of our culture everything has to be made simplistic.

as all you focus so intensely on oswald, ummm... how do you explain jack ruby?

as doro killgallen famously said:

The case is closed, is it?

Well, I’d like to know how, in a big, smart town like Dallas, a man like Jack Ruby — owner of a strip tease honky tonk — can stroll in and out of police headquarters as if it was at a health club at a time when a small army of law enforcers is keeping a “tight security guard” on Oswald.

Justice is a big rug.

When you pull it out from under one man, a lot of others fall, too.

The 13th was Saturday, R38.

R62 we know where ya live

R64 ... how many multiple personalities do "we" have

"How did a kid with no known military training outfox the Secret Service and local law enforcement?"

We'll never know. Let's move on. There are Mexican rapists pouring into our country...

The local police were assigned to that building and they were inside the building. They were the fuck-ups not the SS but the SS seemed lax in letting his head and chest be exposed when he was showboating with his fist in the air.

🤷🏻‍♂️ it’s all the same 🤷🏻‍♂️

ABC News just reported that the shooter Crooks search for images of both Biden and Trump days before the shooting.

Thank God Biden doesn’t do trashy Pennsylvania towns.

Suspected gunman had searched for Trump’s rally date, DNC convention

Thomas Matthew Crooks, the suspected gunman in the assassination attempt on Donald Trump last Saturday, searched on his phone for the dates of the former president’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and for dates of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.

Crooks also searched on his phone for images of both the former president and current president, sources said.

So he didn't care what politician he killed as long as it was high profile so he would become infamous.

There has never been an FBI Director that has been a Democrat, it's no surprise they don't want to declassified materials from the JFK and MLK assassinations.

They and the rest of the FBI will defend domestic terrorists at all costs especially if they're Republicans!

I love pointing that out on the Yahoo comments board R73 when MAGA's are claiming the FBI is a liberal Democratic Party ran organization. I add all those Republican FBI directors didn't also fill the FBI will a bunch of liberals.

His family must be devastated. Don't leave your AR-15's lying around.

His family were all magas. But I'm sure they are devastated because now they have the FBI crawling all over them. His parents probably didn't pay much attention to him and he didn't have a lot of friends. He was bullied in school. a prescription for disaster.

FBI is known for being run by Mormon conservatives. The Secret Service is infamous for being run by alt-right whack jobs.

And all White House communication is managed by the military. Nixon didn't l ike that. Suddenly military man Bob Woodward is on his case.

R76 It was reported that his father was a Republican and his mother was a Democrat.

The odd thing about it is that, the bullied loner trope has been a public violence excuse for decades.

I don't wish to speak ill of the dead, but that kid looked like he had a syndrome

yeah but what would make a kid so angry he would go out and kill people for no reason and complete strangers? There have to be reasons for all that anger. Or maybe he's just a psychopath.

Trump ordered his followers to kill Hillary Clinton not himself. Maybe he picked up the wrong message.

[quote]So he didn't care what politician he killed as long as it was high profile so he would become infamous.

Either that or he didn't know which was which till he checked their images. Amounts to the same thing, I guess.

Trump's attempted assassin posted message before shooting: 'July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds'

His parents were licensed counselors,

dad a Libertarian,

mom a Democrat.

He had a sister, also a Libertarian, two grades older.

#85, it's determined to be fake. They're desperately trying to turn Crooks into an Antifa Warrior.

I don’t believe he was bullied. Only one former classmate came forward to say that and he looked like he was lying.

I actually think video games are not talked about enough with these lone shooters. A whole generation of Gen Z were raised with ultra violent first person shooters with real high definition. It all looks so real it has numb them to gun violence. I think these games have done more harm than gun laws to be honest.

Uh-uh, R89. Researchers seem to disagree about how much, if any, impact violent video games do have, but even if it were a lot--if kids twisted by the games can't get hold of guns there's not going to be gun violence. The Trump shooter was evidently a pretty gormless kid. If there hadn't been a gun basically just lying around the house, he wouldn't have been able to get one in the time he had, much less practise his aim.

Just over 25 years ago the Port Arthur massacre happened and Australia cracked down hard on gun ownership. Increase in gun crime in Australia in the last 20 years of video games? Nada. Not even in gang-on-gang violence, where illegal guns are favoured. There HAS been an increase in violent assaults by younger men, but because they can't get guns this translates into a much smaller increase in homicides.

Is OP the Director of the FBI?

REGISTERED REPUBLICAN - GUN NUT

Registering as a Libertarian is the same thing as declaring "I'm a psychopath." What a family to grow up in: TWO of them!

9/11 was a conspiracy even if it happened as the government claimed. But it would have been an easier conspiracy to just remote fly those jets and not bother with idiot hijackers.

R88, I think it’s safe to make an exception to your rule in this instance.

BlackRock’s central casting bullied this camera-shy, ready-for-his-closeup "loner" into a commercial.

Crooks had two cellphones, had searched for Trump rally and DNC dates, FBI says

The troubling search history leads investigators to believe that loner Crooks, 20, was mostly focused on a mass-casualty event — and that Trump’s rally close to his home in Pennsylvania was more about convenience than an ideological target, a US official briefed on the issue told CNN.

Deranged Registered Republican shoots Deranged Registered Republican

Thomas Crooks Searched for Porn Before Shooting Trump: FBI

Oh now MAGA is really going to go after porn, Project 2025 has a section on getting rid of porn.

he learned how to measure range at the gun club

Cheatle confirmed at the hearing that Crooks arrived at the rally with a range finder, a tool used to gauge outdoor distances for use in photography, surveying or shooting.

But she said that a “range finder is not a prohibited item” and that carrying one did not necessarily make him a threat.

Given that surveyors would not normally ply their trade on the weekend in the midst of a huge political rally, the absence of a camera might have been quite a big tip-off to a non-moron.

Had extremist anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic content on his phone

While all this might be true about the shooter, is it wrong to think the Trump campaign used this kid as a patsy?

Or was the photo op and the way they tried to capitalise on the shooting just coincidental? I mean, in less than 15 minutes their campaign surrogates were on social media calling the election for Trump - no mention of the casualty. Within 45 minutes they were selling merch. Is their vulgar behaviour completely exclusive of an actual assassination attempt? As if that is the only possible behaviour they could display? All that fist pumping?

I feel like the shooter expected to be greeted with a “Congratulations, kid! That was great! We’re just going to help you down here and there’s a car waiting for you on the other side of those trees to take you to the private plane…” And maybe wasn’t expecting to have his brains blown out.

R104 There are a number of possible scenarios, but irrespective of which is correct, I think a master conman and showman like Trump when out in public would always have a capsule of fake blood in his pocket to generate a photo op. Even if someone were being shot a block away, Trump would seize the opportunity.

While you and I slave away 40 or more hours a week at work, and other politicians address the country’s problems, I think Trump and his ilk spend that time figuring out ways to con the world for money, fame, and power. It’s their “work,” and in their demented minds it’s as important as, if not more important than, the work that other people do.