Revisiting the article about Thomas taking a shooting class in Cranberry days before the July 13th incident, I had some thoughts. Everything this man says needs to be taken with several massive grains of salt. There is a lot of editorializing and opinion in his interview, but there are several noteworthy statements. The gentleman who took the class with him is former military. That does not automatically mean he is a talented marksman. However, I think it is safe to say his being impressed with TMC’s aim and comfort with weapons is significant. The class TMC took is described as “intermediate handgun-pistol 2” and meant to “improve accuracy and distance through stance, grip and follow through…teach you how to prioritize multiple targets for maximum efficiency.” The gentleman describes TMC as confident and experienced with guns. This tells us that not only was TMC skilled with his rifle, but clearly devoted time to handguns as well. It makes me wonder if he had a preference. We also get more of a look into his quiet personality. The gentleman says a lot of uncharitable things, but did ultimately say his impression of TMC was that he was a quiet, nice, kid, which falls in line with every other description we have heard about him. I also think it says a lot about his dedication to his hobby that he took a class about it. He was not content to just go to the gun range and arbitrarily work on his aim. He genuinely wanted to learn from people more experienced than him to improve his skills. The gentleman makes a lot of TMC’s reactions to the political conversation with the instructor praising Trump, but I personally do not believe there is anything to this. The class was held June 22nd and the Trump campaign did not announce the plans for the Butler rally until July 3rd so he would not have even started making any solid plans. He may well have not even decided on Trump as a target seeing as he had multiple political figures saved on his phone. I believe the “smirk” the gentleman describes is more of the tight, polite smile of a person unable to leave a conversation they want absolutely no part of. I would love to know what your opinions are on the interview.
Tried to embed the article link and failed. Oops. Here it is
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/29362416/donald-trump-shooter-thomas-crooks-shooting-range/
Now that I think of it…does anybody know when he *started* shooting guns? How often do you have to go to the range to get this kind of accuracy and speed? Why am I thinking he’d only been shooting for a year? I think I’m getting it mixed up with when he purchased the gun from his dad.
I’m sure he’d been shooting for more than a year. I don’t know enough about marksmanship to know how long it would take to be proficient.
If Crooks already had the general idea to shoot people, then this class seems sinister. But then again, it’s not like they have these classes to teach you how to bake better cookies, so no red flags would have been raised.
I also think the banter about Trump was irrelevant at this time, which is why there wasn’t much of a reaction either way. It’s unlikely any of it pushed him over the edge, but this guy wants to be in the story so let him. Sharing a range with an assassin is going to be the high point of his life, a tale suitable for free drinks at any MAGA rally for the next few years.
Either way, it’s obvious the guy was impressed by Crooks shooting so accurately and so fast.
Linking the Class URL and description here for posterity, as eventually everything seems to vanish:
https://keystoneshootingcenter.com/blog/classes/intermediate-handgun
(It’s not dynamic. Open image in new tab to see full size)