It’s right there as one of the four universal rules of gun safety: “Be sure of your target and what’s beyond it.” Apparently one of the uniformed Secret Service agents on duty Saturday night didn’t get the memo and opened fire on the rapidly moving, would-be White House Correspondents’ Dinner assassin with all of his or her buddies in the background. Heck, they practically are the background.
We know that the alleged attempted assassin, Cole Allen, wasn’t shot. He took no hits. We’ve been told that five? rounds were discharged. Authorities and their spokespeople have been a bit vague — at least as of the last I’ve heard — as to whether or not Allen fired any of his weapons, though court proceedings contain statements that he fired one shot from his shotgun toward a staircase, and he is being charged with discharging a weapon in the commission of a crime.
From the Washington Post . . .
Live streams from inside the ballroom captured the sound of six shots, according to Rob Maher, an audio forensics expert at Montana State University, who reviewed the recordings at The Post’s request. All the gunshots take place within 1.4 seconds, he said. The surveillance video reviewed by The Post does not include audio.
Allen fell to the ground and suffered minor injuries but was not shot, according to charging documents. He was arrested.
We know a Secret Service agent was shot in the chest, saved by his ballistic vest. Authorities and their spokespeople have been vague as to whether they believe that shot came from Allen. Last I heard, the message was fairly clear: ‘we aren’t going to say one way or the other until the ballistics lab’s investigation is done.’
As Politico reports . . .
Asked about the lack of any allegation in the complaint that Allen fired a round at the officer, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the investigation is still in a preliminary phase, with expert ballistics work still underway.
My take? It was friendly fire. If the agent who was hit took a load of 00 buckshot to the chest, they’d have been very sure of that without having to hear it from a ballistics lab. I think there’s a single round in that vest.
To be clear, I hope I’m wrong. That would be embarrassing. The Secret Service has been, if we’re honest, embarrassing over the last few years between agent fist fights, mentally disturbed agents, drunken shenanigans and other unbecoming conduct, negligent discharges (an agent shot himself in the leg almost exactly a month ago), embarrassing security failures, and more.
This? This is pretty basic stuff. This is firearm training 101. This is something you teach first-time shooters and children drilling it into them over and over for their entire shooting career.
Experienced hunter? You’re still going to talk about what’s beyond the target when you’re lining up a shot on an animal. You might miss. The bullet might go through. A deer on a ridgeline with who-knows-what beyond it? You shouldn’t take that shot.
I’ve been in a high-stress, rushed situation where I had to take a shot on a wounded giraffe and even I, with limited tactical training, recognized a moving truck in the near-ish distance that was arguably just a little too in-line for comfort and sprinted laterally in order to line up a safe shot and get that truck out of the background.
Maybe the Secret Service trains differently. Maybe they’re taught to fire on a threat no matter what, because the security of their protectee comes first, no matter what. Maybe.
This agent could have hit the deck to shoot upwards at Allen. He/she could have stepped in front of him for an easier, straighter, closer shot. The security personnel in general could have taken up positions in that room so as not to create a freaking 360-degree background full of people around the metal detector.
I know it was a high-stress, rushed situation. I hate to Monday morning quarterback. But come on, y’all, did we really just go circular firing squad on ourselves?
The guy who shot him was probably trained buy a moron who uses phrases like “position sul” and thinks “temple index” is is a good idea.
The U.S.SS DEI program is obviously still in place.