Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) Profile picture
Investor, prof, policy consultant, author, independent investigative journalist and father. Trying to make the world suck less.

Sep 11, 11 tweets

1/11

One thing that stands out to me about this shooting, was how odd it was to have a single-shot fired from a high-powered rifle.

Thinking back over history, that's not something we see commonly in assassinations, and I wanted to understand how rare it is.

2/11

So I compiled a quick list of major political and influencer assassination that happened in a public setting, since, 1865, breaking down:

-Role
-Weapon type
-Shots fired
-Outcome
-And if professional or amateur

3/11

Most political assassinations seem to fall into two stories:

-Angry political extremist who knows they will die doing this and wants to make a big scene, firing lots.

-Delusional inexperienced gunman panicking in the moment, firing lots.

4/11

The few exceptions are:

-John Wilkes Booth, firing with a pistol at point blank and a single shot - in a very different era.

-Joseph Paul Franklin, when he killed Vernon Jordan, but he was already a long-time serial killer.

5/11

And, the assassination of Martin Luther king Jr by James Early Ray, where Ray long claimed he was a patsy in a government conspiracy, and not the professional hired hitman.

6/11

Other than that, shooters don't tend to fire once.

From Sirhan Sirhan, to Thomas Crooks, whether rifle or pistol, most perpetrators of political violence tend to fire multiple times in rapid succession.

7/11

Lee Harvey Oswald was an experienced shooter, who scored 212 (Sharpshooter) on the Marine Corps marksmanship test, and he fired 3 different shots from 55 yards - 100 yards in quick succession on a bolt-action rifle (the same type of weapon being discussed here)

8/11

Of cases that weren't foiled, only 6 were single shot, mostly point blank pistols.

The only other *fatal* shooting, of a single shot, from a rifle at a distance was the MLK case, which of course invited its own conspiracies to this day.

9/11

That's part of why its so critical to find this shooter, get the full details and know justice is properly served before narratives take hold.

This shooter made a single fatal shot, waited for confirmation of it, fled the scene and dodged the FBI.

10/11

That either tells us one of:

A) This shooter was an extremely abnormal case.

B) The shooter was not personally driven (potentially professional).

C) The shooter was remarkably experienced.

or

D) The FBI is less competent than we thought.

11/11

Until we have concrete evidence of someone brought to justice, with irrefutable proof of their involvement, any narrative left, right or conspiracy, can spark and take hold, because of the abnormalities in this case, the political tensions, and the lack of faith in the FBI

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