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In the wake of the Donald Trump assassination attempt several bloggers are referring to this tweet by a former secret service agent. He is explaining why the snipers did not take out the attacker before he got the chance to fire.

Essentially they were scanning for threats from a great distance, well beyond the roughly 150 meters at which the threat appeared. This is evidenced by the fact that the elevated counter-sniper had to dramatically drop his line of sight to respond to the shooter.

I don't understand what "drop one's line of sight" means.

Does it mean that the agent tilts his rifle/scope forwards so it points further downwards?

Or does it mean that he puts himself in a different position (maybe even moves to a different spot on the roof) where his line of sight is more limited?

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  • The rigid barrel of a gun has to be "tilted downwards". A gun barrel cannot be "tilted forward". to drop (informal) = to lower . "The doctor dropped the dose when she said the medicine made her feel dizzy."
    – TimR
    Commented Jul 15 at 11:29
  • "We'll have to drop the ceiling a foot to accomodate the A/C conduits."
    – TimR
    Commented Jul 15 at 11:35
  • A line of sight can be dropped by a sniper going onto their knees or lying on their stomach. The sniper was higher up. – Lambie Commented4 hours ago
    – Lambie
    Commented Jul 15 at 21:44

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From Cambridge Dictionary:

line of sight:

the direction in which a person must look in order to see a particular object:

The person was viewing the far distance and needed to redirect to a closer point. They were at an elevated position and therefore had to look lower than they were looking.

Imagine standing on the roof, looking at the horizon and then looking at an object that is nearer. You must tilt your sight down or lower your line of sight.

The added significance here is that a sniper will have set up their gun to look at a specific distance and adjusting it to aim at something significantly closer is not trivial as you have to physically move not only the weapon but the shooter as well.

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  • To lower the line of sight from a gun, you have to lower your body. It is unlikely the sniper is looking down on the person but they could be.
    – Lambie
    Commented Jul 15 at 21:45
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    @Lambie, is that based on any artillery knowledge you might have? My first instinct was the same as this answer: To drop your line of sight is to tilt the gun so that it's pointing more downward.
    – Peter Kirkpatrick
    Commented Jul 16 at 6:12
  • @Lambie if you're on a flat rooftop with a parapet wall, you will likely have to raise your body if you want to drop your line of sight -- depending on where your body was to start with.
    – phoog
    Commented Jul 16 at 11:27

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