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| Image No. 1 of Trump shooting site (CBS) |
Based on my social-media feeds, many Americans do not buy the official story behind the assassination attempt on Donald Trump Saturday in Butler, PA.You can count me among those doubters. Why? Well, let's start at the beginning.
Noises that sounded like gunshots rang out moments after Trump began to speak. Video shows that he was speaking directly toward a crowd spread out in front of him, mostly seated in what appeared to be folding chairs. More attendees were seated in bleachers behind Trump.
The video also shows that as shots can be heard, Trump reaches up to his right ear, as if he is trying to shoo away a troublesome gnat. We later learn that Trump tells authorities he was shot in the ear with a bullet. Authorities correct that, saying Trump was hit by shards of glass, producing what appears to be blood coming from the inside of his ear. In most images, taken immediately after the shooting, Trump does not appear to have anything looking like blood on his right hand or his shirt.
Right away, the story is confused; Trump says he was hit by a bullet, authorities say he was hit by glass. Is that a sign that the "official" story already was falling apart? My guess is "yes."
We later learn that the alleged assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, acquired a gun via a family member, likely his father, Matthew Crooks. Little is known about the family so far, but USA TODAY reported the following:
Police officials called it an AR-15. An ATF agent called it “nothing special.” But the rifle at the center of countless controversies is now at the center of the attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
An AR-15-style rifle was found next to the body of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old authorities say wounded Trump and others and left one man dead in Butler, Pennsylvania.
An FBI official said Sunday that the bureau believes the rifle, using 5.56 ammunition, was purchased legally by Crooks' father, Matthew Crooks. The official, on a call with reporters, said he did not know whether Crooks had permission to use the weapon.
The Crooks family’s digital footprint is small, but some of their few online tracks tie them to internet marketplaces that buy or sell guns.
According to data from a website breach reviewed by USA TODAY, Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, made a purchase in 2020 from Botach, a website that describes itself as one of the leading retailers of tactical supplies used in law enforcement, the military and home defense.
The leaked data do not show the specific items purchased or the transaction amount, so it is unclear whether Matthew Crooks' purchase was a firearm. The Botach website advertises a variety of semi-automatic rifles and many other goods.
The data was hacked from Eye4Fraud.com, said Megan Squire, deputy director of the Southern Poverty Law Center who provided USA TODAY an excerpt showing the purchase. Eye4Fraud.com is a company that screens online purchases on behalf of e-commerce merchants for potential fraudulent activity. Its data was hacked in February 2023 and posted to the dark web earlier this year.
It is unknown who hacked or posted the data, Squire said. The data shows only the one purchase by Matthew Crooks.
Matthew Crooks could not be reached in repeated phone calls Saturday and Sunday.
About the shooting: FBI says gunman acted alone, used gun purchased by father
The Associated Press, citing law enforcement sources, reported the rifle was purchased by Matthew Crooks at least six months ago.
Seven months ago, a Gmail account using the name Matthew Crooks posted a review for a licensed gun reseller in Nevada called CashMyGuns.com. The reviewer praised the business as "the easiest way to get rid of unwanted firearms" and recommended it to others.
That Matthew Thomas Crooks apparently used an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle introduces a whole new level of confusion to the story. A report at firstpost.com calls the AR-15 "America's most popular weapon." How dangerous is the rifle? Firstpost.com provides answers with frightening clarity and notes that the weapon has been at the center of numerous mass shootings:
While the motive for the attack is not clear yet, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has identified the shooter – a 20-year-old named Thomas Matthew Crooks from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. He used an AR-15-style rifle, according to the Secret Service.
What is this rifle and how dangerous can it be? We explain.
The shooting at Trump rally
Minutes after Trump took to the stage at a rally in Butler, at least five shots rang out. One of the bullets hit the “upper part” of the former president’s right ear. The Secret Service said he was safe after he was rushed off the stage with blood on his face.
The 20-year-old shooter had positioned himself on the roof of a manufacturing facility, situated a few meters away from the stage where Trump was speaking. The Open-air setting at the Butler Farm Show grounds provided the gunman with a clear line of sight of his target, according to a report in The New York Post.
A counter-sniper team swung into action. They returned fire from the roof of a separate building and killed Crooks, the report says.
Law enforcement sources informed The Associated Press that an AR-style semi-automatic rifle was recovered from the scene. It was an AR-15, confirmed the Secret Service.
AR-15: The rifle used in Trump shooting
The AR-15 is one of the most popular and recognisable firearms in the US. It has been used in several high-profile mass shootings in the US.
The AR-15 is a civilian rifle, which falls under the category of the “modern sporting rifle,” which is supposed to be used in competition and for hunting. It was adapted from the M16 military combat automatic rifle.
The AR does not stand for “assault rifle,” as is popular belief, but for “ArmaLite Rifle,” named after the company that first developed it in the 1950s. The design of the weapon was sold to another company called Colt in 1959, which adapted it into a fully automatic version – M-16 – used by the military.
The M-16 was used on the front lines in the early stages of the Vietnam War. It was not popular at first because of jamming issues but was later modified into M16A1, which became a standard weapon used by the American military, according to a report in the BBC.
After the Vietnam War, Colt started marketing the semi-automatic version of the rifle to gun enthusiasts in the U.S. Its patent for the AR-15 expired in 1977, but other firearm manufacturers -- Remington, Smith & Wesson, and Ruger -- started making their own versions. While their rifles have different names, they are still referred to as AR-15s. They are lightweight, magazine-fed, gas-operated semi-automatic rifles, known for their accuracy, ease of use and adaptability.
The rifle fires bullets at a high velocity – often in a barrage of 30 or even 100 in rapid –succession and can eviscerate several people in seconds. A single bullet is enough to blow apart a skull and puncture vital organs, according to a report in The Washington Post.
It is the speed of a bullet sprayed from an AR-15 that makes it so deadly. It causes damage once it hits the body, reducing the chances of survival. These projectiles often break apart as they pass through the body, inflicting serious injuries, leading to more blood loss and possible death.
The AR-15 is legal for civilian use in many parts of the US and is the best-selling rifle in the country. Its use surged in the early 2000s, after an increased interest in firearms in post-9/11 America. In 2004, the federal assault weapons ban that blocked the sales of semiautomatic rifles expired and it only fueled an interest in the gun.
This description of what an AR-15 does to a human body -- eviscerating several people in seconds, a single bullet blowing apart a skull and puncturing vital organs, projectiles breaking apart as they pass through the body, causing deadly blood loss -- is horrifying.
Yet, Donald Trump wants us to believe a bullet from such a weapon "grazed" his right ear, and two days later, he is fine, -- all set to appear this week at the Republican National Convention, ready to revel in the adulation as a martyr for the GOP?
To answer that question, we relied on the description of the damage an AR-15 tends to wreak, plus diagrams and maps we found of the rally site, at the Butler Farm Show.
Let's begin our inquiry by examining the images at the top (CBS News) and bottom (ABC News) of this post. Both provide clear representations of the rally site at the Butler Farm Show facility. Both show where Trump was standing in relation to the alleged shooter, who was perched atop a building about 400 feet away. Still images (see below) show Trump was facing an audience in front of him, with attendees seated on bleachers behind him. The gunman was to Trump's right, so Trump's right ear was exposed, perhaps explaining why apparent blood formed on the inside of his ear. But would an AR-15 cause a wound like that, which looked like it was little more than a nick? As we learn from the firstpost.com material cited above, AR-15s don't leave anything like a nick. They leave fearsome, often deadly, wounds. Trump's ear likely would have been torn off his head, and his skull would have been blown apart. Are we to believe that the thin tissue of Trump's ear could stop a bullet from an AR-15? That is extremely unlikely. Rather, the bullet would enter the skull, and once inside, it is designed to break apart and cause catastrophic damage, the kind Trump almost certainly would not have survived. So what caused all of this to happen? We might not know for weeks or months -- investigators are laying the groundwork to obtain the gunman's cell phone -- and if a government coverup takes hold -- we might never know what happened.
We have seen signs, however, that things haven't been going well for Trump in recent weeks; now, his story of a glancing type blow from an AR-15 is not faring so well, either. Let's examine some of the events that have been swirling around Trump recently. Is it possible a few of these -- or perhaps an accumulation of them all -- caused someone to get desperate about Trump's electoral prospects, and they decided to set things right by launching a scheme that left two people (the alleged shooter and a former fire chief who was in the crowd) dead, with two others critically injured. In someone's mind, was that a small prize to pay in order to enhance Trump's chances of winning the 2024 election, partly by allowing him to play the role of "injured" martyr at the Republican National Convention, which begins tonight? Here are signs of distress we've seen connected to the Trump campaign:
(1) Photos of Trump playing golf yesterday, one day after almost being "assassinated," are circulating on the Web, suggesting he is recovering nicely from the "trauma" he endured. If Trump really had been shot in the ear/head by an AR-15, those images would not exist;
(2) A recent report at Newsweek has Trump's lead over President Joe Biden slipping, with the latest polls showing the race is a "toss-up";
(3) Per CNN, a post-debate poll shows Vice President Kamala Harris outpacing Trump in a hypothetical match-up. Here is a report on that from The Nation;
(4) Trump is facing sentencing in the New York hush-money case on Sept. 18, with jail still on the table;
(5) Trump and his advisers have made it clear they hope Biden stays in the race; they clearly do not want to face Harris;
(6) Trump has been trying to distance himself from Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation, but the record is clear that Trump and members of his team are closely tied to both. The assassination story likely took attention away from Project 2025, at least for a few days;
(7) Trump has been using campaign funds to pay almost all of his legal bills. Is that a sign that his campaign is on shaky financial footing?
(8) At a meeting with oil-industry executives, Trump pressed them to make a $1 billion donation to his campaign. This sounds like a glorified shakedown effort, and perhaps is another sign the campaign is hemorrhaging money.
(9) CEOs attended a meeting with Trump, where they were expected to endorse him, but came away unimpressed, saying he was "meandering" and "didn't know what he was talking about." another bad sign for the financial stability of Trump's campaign?
(10) In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's immunity ruling favoring Trump, the case will go back to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is expected to conduct "mini-trials" that could bring loads of damaging information about Trump to public attention -- before the election.
As you can see, Trump and his team members are under duress from a number of directions? Did that give life to the peculiar events in Butler, PA? From where I sit, it looks quite likely.
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| Image No. 2 of Trump shooting site (ABC) |
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