individuals charged<\/a> so far.<\/p>\nAnd what does that record reveal?\u00a0 Numerous persons are charged with carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon. \u00a0But in each of those cases the \u201cweapons\u201d were anything other than firearms.\u00a0 Some people used riot shields.\u00a0 Some had poles.\u00a0 In one case a person had a taser.\u00a0 There were other miscellaneous items.<\/p>\n
There was one instance of a person (Lonnie Coffman) on the Capitol steps who was observed by a policeman carrying in his pocket an unlicensed pistol, but he was immediately chased and never made it inside the building.\u00a0 Another person (William Watson) was found to have mace and a pocketknife.\u00a0 He made it inside the Capitol, but Capitol Police acknowledged that Watson tried to help calm the crowd.\u00a0 Hardly the behavior of a man intended on a coup d\u2019\u00e9tat.<\/p>\n
Christopher Alberts had a firearm that day.\u00a0 But he also did not get inside the building.\u00a0 Then there was Grant Moore.\u00a0 His parked vehicle near the Capitol contained a pistol found in a backpack sitting in the passenger seat.<\/p>\n
And that is it.\u00a0 No one was arrested or charged with carrying a firearm of any type into the Capitol building that day.\u00a0 Not a single pistol.\u00a0 No revolvers.\u00a0 No automatic weapons.\u00a0 There was not a single firearm \u2013 no guns at all.<\/p>\n
Now we do not belittle the riot that day.\u00a0 It was totally unacceptable at any level.\u00a0 Peaceful protest is the hallmark of dissent.\u00a0 Violence is the bludgeon of authoritarians.\u00a0 No doubt that events spiraled out of control on January 6th.\u00a0 <\/sup>The Capitol Police were horribly unprepared.<\/p>\nBut the facts show (so far) that no one inside of that building that day was carrying a firearm (other than the Capitol Police themselves).\u00a0 An insurrection without firearms?\u00a0 Maybe in the 15th<\/sup> century, but hardly imaginable in the 21st<\/sup> century.<\/p>\nWe do not quibble with fists \u2013 they are dangerous weapons in their own rights.\u00a0 But let us be realistic.\u00a0 Can anyone imagine organizing and executing an overthrow of the United States government without any firearms?\u00a0 Fists are not the weapons of \u201crebels\u201d intending to take the Capitol.\u00a0 What we witnessed that day, and history will ultimately record, was largely a mob running wild \u2013 and a police force that, for reasons unexplainable so far, was grossly unprepared to contain that mob.<\/p>\n
Complete Breakdown of Defense<\/h2>\n
The American people deserve a serious explanation.\u00a0 Not so much, perhaps, about what people in that crowd did that day.\u00a0 Most of it is on video tape.\u00a0 Rather, the American people demand an understanding as to how the Capitol Police could be overwhelmed so easily.\u00a0 How could the Capitol and its occupants, under any circumstances, be left effectively unprotected?\u00a0 (Seriously \u2013 they deployed waist-high metal barriers that a solid 13-year-old could knock over with his feet).\u00a0 Especially since days earlier, as no one disputes, they were warned that protests were coming.\u00a0 Even the former President had pre-authorized the National Guard for protection.<\/p>\n
It is all a complete disgrace.\u00a0 Who was involved in the \u201cdefense\u201d planning before that day?\u00a0 The Speaker of the House?\u00a0 The Capitol Police Chief?\u00a0 Was the Army involved?\u00a0 Who else?\u00a0 There was a complete breakdown of vision, strategy, and deployment.\u00a0 Because if there had been an organized attack on the Capitol building that day, replete with real firearms, a lot of people would have died.\u00a0 And that must be unimaginable in the United States.\u00a0 It must be.<\/p>\n