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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024

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My understanding is that the shooter openly carried a rifle, climbed up the side of a building in full view of security and the audience, from a range of a little over a hundred yards, posted up and fired shots without intervention on the part of Secret Service or the on-site security.

Sort of. From what I've seen, he was in-view to a crowd outside the event, watching through a fence, and at the side of the building on which Crooks was positioned. There were local cops in this area, one of whom was along the wall of this building and so could not see the roof at all, unlike the bystanders who were some distance away. The angle of the roof was sloped so that he would not have been visible to the security/snipers in the event until he reached the roof's apex. There were also some trees in the area, which may have made him harder to spot from the event, but it's hard to tell.