The image is burned into the collective memory of 2024. Donald Trump, face streaked with blood, fist in the air, while Secret Service agents scramble to form a human shield. It happened in an instant. One second, he’s talking about immigration charts in Butler, Pennsylvania; the next, he’s clutching his ear. But in the chaos that followed, a specific question started trending: what was Trump shot with? It wasn't a "sniper rifle" in the traditional, Hollywood sense. It wasn't a bolt-action hunting gun.
Honestly, it was one of the most common firearms in America. Specifically, the FBI confirmed that the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, used a DPMS Panther Arms A-15. This is a semi-automatic rifle, essentially a civilian version of the military’s M4 or M16. It’s light. It’s black. It’s what most people just call an AR-15.
The rifle wasn't some high-end, custom-built machine of death. It was actually about a decade old. Crooks’ father had bought it legally back in 2013, and Thomas eventually bought it from him in late 2023. This particular DPMS model was chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO, which is the same caliber used by U.S. infantry.
The Anatomy of the DPMS Panther Arms A-15
When you look at the forensic photos released by the FBI, the setup was surprisingly basic but functional. It had a 16-inch barrel. That’s the standard length for a "carbine" style rifle in the U.S. to stay legal under federal law without special tax stamps.
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One detail that surprised some ballistics experts was the optic. He wasn't using a high-powered scope to zoom in from 400 feet. Instead, the rifle was outfitted with a Holosun AEMS red dot sight.
Red dots don't magnify. They just put a glowing dot on your target. For a shot at roughly 130 to 150 yards, a red dot is "kinda" pushing it for precision, but it's totally doable for someone who practices.
The rifle also featured:
- An Aero Precision Atlas R-One handguard (the part you hold at the front).
- A Magpul collapsible stock, which allows the shooter to adjust the length of the gun to fit their shoulder.
- A standard 30-round magazine.
It’s a modular gun. You can swap parts out like Legos. That’s why the AR-15 is so popular—you can make it yours. In this case, those modifications were likely about making the gun more comfortable to carry and aim quickly rather than turning it into a long-range "sniper" platform.
Breaking Down the Ballistics: 5.56 vs. .223
You’ll often hear people use these two terms interchangeably. For most people, they are the same thing. But there's a tiny technical difference that matters when we talk about what actually hit Trump's ear.
The 5.56mm round is a high-velocity bullet. It’s small—about the diameter of a pencil—but it travels incredibly fast. We are talking roughly 3,000 feet per second when it leaves the muzzle. Because it's so fast, it carries a lot of kinetic energy.
If that bullet had hit an inch to the right, the conversation today would be very different. The "snap" people heard on the video? That was the bullet breaking the sound barrier as it flew past microphones.
Forensic analysts noted that the shooter fired eight rounds in total. One clipped the former President's ear, while others tragically hit spectators, killing Corey Comperatore and seriously wounding two others.
Why the Distance Mattered
The shooter was perched on a roof about 150 yards away. To a professional, that's a chip shot. To a 20-year-old with a red dot sight and probably some nerves, it’s a difficult shot under pressure.
Experts like Brandon Webb, a former Navy SEAL sniper instructor, pointed out that the AR-15 is plenty accurate at that range. However, without a magnified scope, you aren't seeing the fine details of a human head. You're aiming at a silhouette.
That small margin of error is likely why the bullet only grazed his ear. A slight gust of wind or a last-second tilt of Trump's head to look at that screen essentially changed history.
Misconceptions About the Weapon
One of the biggest rumors that flew around early on was that he was hit by "glass shards" from a teleprompter. That was debunked pretty quickly. The FBI's lead investigators and even Trump's own former physician, Ronny Jackson, confirmed it was a bullet or a fragment of one.
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Another weird theory was that the gun was "modified" to be fully automatic. It wasn't. It was a standard semi-automatic. One pull, one shot. The speed you heard in the recordings was just the shooter pulling the trigger as fast as he could.
Facts You Should Know
- Manufacturer: DPMS (Defense Procurement Manufacturing Services).
- Model: Panther Arms A-15.
- Caliber: 5.56x45mm NATO / .223 Remington.
- Action: Semi-automatic, gas-operated.
- Optic: Holosun AEMS Reflex Sight.
- Rounds Fired: 8.
The DPMS brand itself has a bit of a history. It was one of the first companies to really push AR-style rifles into the civilian market for hunting and target shooting. It eventually became part of a larger conglomerate, but the "Panther" logo remains one of the most recognizable in the gun world.
Moving Forward
If you are looking to understand the technical side of the Butler incident, the best thing you can do is look at the official FBI evidence photos. They show the rifle broken down into two pieces—the "upper" and "lower"—which is how Crooks likely transported it in a backpack to get past initial notice.
Understanding the hardware is only one piece of the puzzle. The security failures that allowed a person with a 16-inch rifle to get onto a roof within 150 yards are still being debated in Congress.
For those interested in the ballistics, you can research "External Ballistics of the 5.56 NATO" to see how wind and drop affect a bullet at 150 yards. It's a deep rabbit hole, but it explains exactly how a fraction of an inch determined the outcome of that day.
Check the official FBI Vault or the House Task Force reports if you want to see the high-resolution photos of the recovered casing and the rifle's serial numbers.