POLITICS
What gun did the Donald Trump shooter use?
The FBI has confirmed that Thomas Matthew Crooks took aim at the former president. Here’s what we know about the weapon used.
Further information about the shocking assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump have emerged, including details of the weapon used in the attack.
The Guardian reports that an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle was used in the shooting. A version of the military issue M-16 rifle, the AR-15 has become one of the United States’ most notorious weapons and has been used in a number of horrific mass shootings.
An eyewitness account from the Trump rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania confirmed that he saw the shooter, now identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, using a rifle when he took aim at the 2024 Republican nominee.
“We noticed the guy bear-crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50ft away,” rally attendee Greg Smith told the BBC shortly after the attack. “He had a rifle, we could clearly see a rifle.”
“We’re pointing at him, the police are down there running around on the ground, we’re like ‘Hey man, there’s a guy on the roof with a rifle’... and the police did not know what was going on.”
Why is the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle so controversial?
The weapon used in the attack on Trump has a long history of criminality in the United States and was used in some of the nation’s most heinous shootings in recent years.
The October 2017 attack in Las Vegas was perpetrated using an AR-15. In that one incident, 59 people were killed Route 91 Harvest Festival. In November 2022 an AR-15 was used in mass shooting at an LGBTQ+ venue in Colorado Springs that killed five people.
There have been numerous attempts in Congress to supress the sale and availability of this weapon but those efforts have been frustrated. Last February Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde handed out pin badges in the shape of AR-15 rifles.
“I hear that this little pin that I’ve been giving out on the House floor has been triggering some of my Democratic colleagues,” Rep. Clyde, a gun shop owner, said of the badges. “Well, I give it out to remind people of the second amendment of the constitution and how important it is in preserving our liberties.”