XPost: alt.politics.usa.congress, alt.fraud.alt.society.resistance,   
   sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns   
   From: democrat-criminals@mail.house.gov   
      
   In the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, a popular   
   narrative has emerged: that because rioters did not fire guns that day,   
   they were not really "armed."   
      
   But a review of the federal charges against the alleged rioters shows that   
   they did come armed, and with a variety of weapons: stun guns, pepper   
   spray, baseball bats and flagpoles wielded as clubs. An additional suspect   
   also allegedly planted pipe bombs by the headquarters of the Democratic   
   and Republican parties the night before the riot and remains at large.   
      
   Those weapons brought violence and chaos to the Capitol. Capitol Police   
   officer Brian Sicknick died one day after two rioters allegedly sprayed   
   him and other officers with what prosecutors describe as an "unknown   
   chemical substance." Four other people in the crowd died in the   
   insurrection, and more than 100 police officers suffered injuries,   
   including cracked ribs, gouged eyes and shattered spinal disks.   
      
   Some supporters of former President Donald Trump have argued that the   
   dangerousness of the Capitol rioters has been overblown. Sen. Ron Johnson,   
   R-Wis., has said, for example, "This didn't seem like an armed   
   insurrection to me."   
      
   Others have echoed that view, and conservative and pro-Trump media, like   
   Breitbart, The Epoch Times and the Washington Examiner, have seized on the   
   congressional testimony of FBI Assistant Director Jill Sanborn, who said   
   the bureau did not confiscate firearms from suspects that day. But FBI   
   spokesperson Carol Cratty told NPR that Sanborn was talking only   
   specifically about arrests by the FBI, and not other police agencies that   
   made arrests on the day of the riot — including arrests of people   
   allegedly carrying guns.   
      
   Police officers have a much different memory of that day. "I've talked to   
   officers who have done two tours in Iraq who said this was scarier to them   
   than their time in combat," Robert J. Contee III, the acting chief of   
   Washington, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department, said in January. At the   
   time of his comments, he had just spoken with an officer who was attacked   
   with a rioter's stun gun.   
      
   Federal court records, included in NPR's database of more than 300   
   criminal cases, allege that at least three dozen people who took part in   
   the riot used or possessed some kind of weapon that day.   
      
   This number is likely a low estimate of the total number of weapons that   
   rioters brought with them. As the Justice Department has noted in court   
   filings, "no crowd member submitted to security screenings or weapons   
   checks by Capitol Police or other authorized security officials." Most of   
   the people who stormed the Capitol were not arrested during the riot   
   itself. Many are still at large.   
      
   "This was a pretty heavily armed crew of people compared to what you   
   usually see at protests," said Heidi Beirich, a co-founder of the Global   
   Project Against Hate and Extremism. "Even when you see people who are   
   armed at protests in states, for example, where they have open-carry laws,   
   they aren't storming into a building using the weapons in the way that we   
   saw at the Capitol."   
      
   Lorenzo Boyd, a former director of the Center for Advanced Policing at the   
   University of New Haven, called attempts to downplay the deadliness of the   
   weapons used on Jan. 6 a "false narrative."   
      
   "There were a lot of weapons that could be lethal weapons as applied,"   
   said Boyd. In his view, the fact that the rioters were armed with a   
   variety of weapons clearly contributed to the Capitol Police's failure to   
   protect the building. "If you see a lot of resistance and you're being   
   outgunned, outmanned, outpowered, you tend to kind of fall back a little   
   bit," said Boyd.   
      
   Beirich said downplaying the violence also undermines efforts to combat   
   domestic extremism more generally.   
      
   "There is a reluctance on the part of some in conservative circles to   
   accept that domestic terrorism is largely coming from right-wing extremist   
   groups," said Beirich.   
      
   Here are some of the myths about the weapons used in the Capitol riot and   
   what thousands of pages of court documents can tell us about what actually   
   happened.   
      
   Myth 1   
   The weapons used in the Capitol riot did not actually pose a deadly threat   
   to lawmakers.   
      
   The Facts   
   Many of the weapons allegedly used in the riot are considered "less   
   lethal" but are dangerous and can even be fatal, according to experts.   
      
   The Cases   
   "In America, we have this thought that everything is focused on a gun, on   
   a firearm," Boyd said. "And we miss the fact that so many other people are   
   killed with so many other weapons."   
      
   At least one of the rioters was allegedly found with a stun gun. Richard   
   Barnett was photographed sitting in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office   
   with his feet up on a desk. Barnett, who self-identifies as a "white   
   nationalist," was seen in that photo with what federal law enforcement   
   later identified as a "ZAP Hike N Strike 950,000 Volt Stun Gun Walking   
   Stick." According to a product description, the weapon "delivers 950,000   
   volts of knock down power, causing loss of muscle control and   
   disorientation that bring attackers to their knees and makes them   
   incapable of further aggression." (A Reuters investigation found that, as   
   of 2017, more than 1,000 people died after police used a stun gun on   
   them.)   
      
   Other defendants allegedly brought a variety of blunt objects. Around 400   
   Americans are killed by blunt objects every year, according to FBI data.   
      
   A number of those charged were found to have possessed batons, although   
   it's unclear how many were brought to the riot and how many were seized by   
   rioters from law enforcement during the violent demonstrations.   
   Prosecutors allege Bruno Joseph Cua was captured in a video allegedly   
   wielding a baton, while Scott Kevin Fairlamb was seen on Capitol grounds   
   carrying a collapsible baton. Colorado resident Jeffrey Sabol allegedly   
   told federal investigators that he picked up a baton from a law   
   enforcement officer but did not recall whether he struck the officer with   
   it because "he was in a fit of rage and the details are cloudy."   
      
   Jonathan Mellis can be allegedly seen on footage from a Metropolitan   
   Police Department body camera "repeatedly striking and making stabbing   
   movements towards the officers" using a large stick. According to court   
   documents, Mellis appears to be "attempting to strike the officers' necks   
   between their helmets and body-armor where they are not protected."   
      
      
   Federal prosecutors have called Michael Foy "one of the most violent of   
   the Capitol rioters" and have said that evidence shows him "brutally   
   assaulting law enforcement officers" with both a hockey stick and a   
   "sharpened pole" during the riot. Foy's attorney has argued that Foy was   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)