> Our security theater apparatus largely works because nobody is trying to kill a president

Eh, it’s halfway decent at thwarting schemes. Where it fails—where most law enforcement and counterterrorism fails—is in the lone-wolf case. (I’ll call it the Wallace’s dilemma.)

It worked for Ford, it sort of worked for Reagan--he was gravely wounded, but hit with only one bullet rather than several.

The lone nut is the hard thing to stop because even when they're not focused on super strict operational security, it's unlikely they're telling a ton of people about their plan. The more training they have, the more secluded they are, the less likely you are to have any chance of catching them ahead of time.