Reminder

 Okay folks, it's been a couple minutes since I've complained about gun laws, so here we go:

The State of Pennsylvania is what is known as "open carry." Citizens who are at least eighteen years old and not prohibited by law can openly carry a handgun without a license, except in vehicles. And if you've got a mind to show off your rifles, say at a protest or demonstration of some sort, you can do that too. Sling that bad boy over your shoulder and take a walk around the neighborhood. 

Or down to a shed somewhere near Butler, Pennsylvania, close to the fairgrounds. 

Which is essentially what twenty year old Thomas Crooks did on July 13. The law-abiding high school and community college graduate drove sixty miles from his home in Bethel Park to Butler, and then roamed about for some time before coming to his perch overlooking the site where the Republican candidate for president was speaking. 

Carrying the AR-15 style rifle his father had purchased ten years ago, Crooks wandered around until he found a spot some four hundred yards from the podium. In the aftermath of the shooting that occurred on that day, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked now former director of the Secret Service why her agents set up a perimeter inside the effective range of the most popular weapon used in mass shootings. A local firefighter who seated in the grandstand near the stage was killed when he moved to shield his family from the incoming rounds. 

At this point it may be worth mentioning that Thomas Crooks was not asked back to become a member of his high school's shooting team. Sadly, one does not need to be a good shot when operating an AR-15. The semi-automatic rifle can fire up to forty-five rounds per minute. On the day of the shooting Crooks bought a box of fifty rounds of ammo before he climbed up on the roof. 

All of this was, according to Pennsylvania law, completely legal. With the possible exception of a trespassing violation when he crawled up on the roof of the shed. All that gun stuff, carrying, buying, open and legal. 

The good news? It could have been much, much worse. But don't try to tell that to Corey Comperatore's family. Or to anyone else who has died since the ban on assault weapons expired.