Let’s take a moment to explore a few questions you may not have heard elsewhere:

Which is it? Is the Secret Service (SS) grossly, dangerously incompetent, or are its personnel creating, or merely ignoring, security vulnerabilities even the dimmest local cop would recognize as deadly to Donald Trump?

Do they understand the imminent threats apply only to Donald Trump, and not Democrat/socialist/communist (D/s/c) politicians like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris? Is that why they’re refusing to provide the resources necessary to protect Trump? Do they understand, despite D/s/c rhetoric, it’s not Normal Americans trying to assassinate Trump?

The SS is reportedly seriously undermanned. To what degree have the Harris/Biden Administration’s DEI policies hampered recruiting competent agents, and to what degree have those policies dumbed down the quality of those hired?

Are these problems limited to upper-level politician/administrators who deny field agents the resources they need to do their jobs, or are at least some field agents complicit, even at the potential cost of their own lives?

Does the Harris/Biden Administration give a damn about the very real danger posed by our enemies, who, seeing the incompetence or malice by design of the Secret Service, are encouraged to assassinate American politicians?

I was about to ask whether the FBI was incompetent and/or politicized, but that’s really a rhetorical question.

How is it both assassins have significant overseas ties?  How is it a 20-year-old from Ohio has three encrypted overseas accounts, and how is it no one in our government can break that encryption on a 20-year-old’s cell phone?  Is the NSA also entirely incompetent and/or completely weaponized against Normal Americans?  Or have they broken it and are withholding embarrassing/alarming information?

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How could what appears to be a roofer who apparently spends little time roofing afford  two homes, one in Hawaii—which is a wildly expensive place to live—and another in North Carolina?  How can he afford to fly from Hawaii to the mainland, also expensive, and how can he afford to fly to Ukraine and similarly far-flung destinations? How is it Ryan Routh was on the radar of not only the FBI, but a number of other American agencies, was apparently not investigated at all? Does he have some sort of protected status?

How could he have remained hidden at a point of obvious, known vulnerability for 12 hours?

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And what of Routh’s rifle, a SKS with an accessory 30 round magazine, mounted with a scope? Did the Secret Service’s methods work perfectly, as Acting Director Rowe has said, and if so, why did Donald Trump’s continuing existence come down to a single agent, acting on his own, spotting a “muzzle” poking through a vegetation covered fence?

The SKS is a 10-round semiautomatic carbine designed in Russia at about the same time as the AK-47, but the AK was shorter, easier to manufacture, and featured a 30 round detachable box magazine. The SKS was relegated to second tier status and shipped to Soviet client states. It was only made in Russia for about five years, but longer in places like Yugoslavia and China.  Modified, it can accept 30 round magazines, as did Routh’s SKS, but it was never designed for scopes, though mounts are available. 

Is the weapon accurate enough to hit someone at 300 or more yards?  Yes, but not with precision, and no professional would choose an SKS or its 7.62 X 39mm cartridge for that application. Fire enough rounds at a man-sized target at that distance at around one shot per second, and it’s likely you’re going to hit it.  At closer ranges with a scope properly mounted and zeroed, 3”-5” accuracy at 100 yards is possible.

But what about this “muzzle” business. It’s virtually certain the SS agent didn’t see the muzzle, the very end of the rifle’s barrel. It’s reported he was very close, so how could he have missed the four or more shots he took, and why didn’t he –or she—pursue the fleeing suspect? We still have no idea of the exact distance involved. What’s most likely is the agent saw a substantial length of the rifle’s barrel protruding through the fence, which is the mark of a neophyte. No professional would allow his rifle barrel to be visible.

What’s remarkable in this case is it was a citizen who saw and photographed Routh and his vehicle, including the stolen plate, and immediately called the police who caught him some miles away. So much for the SS’s brilliant methods. Were it not for that citizen, and that single agent, Donald Trump would be dead, and Routh would have surely vanished and never been identified.

If those are the only, best, effective “protective methodologies” the SS has, Trump doesn’t stand a chance.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.