What does it serve to “peacefully” protest in full combat attire?
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I agree to a point. Initiating / instigating a shooting will not hold up in most courts under stand your ground or guarantee a positive approach to retaining 2A rights.
Every time I see armed individuals at a location on the news I cringe thinking…”Well…, here’s another excuse they’ll use to sack the 2A rights of law abiding citizens.”
We armed citizens need to stay home & leave the firearms there as well.
Getting arrested will nullify the rights to have any rights.
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I cannot say as I have never done so. And I suspect that goes for the vast majority here. Though I would agree that it often serves to inflame the opposition, which does not help matters. Maybe ask NFAC why they do so. They seem to have significant experience. At least as far as wearing the combat attire, if not in safe firearms handling skills.
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If we are going to stay home and dry fire so we get good at punching paper, we don’t have to blow smoke about how much we believe someone else will protect us…ya’ll know the government will !!
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I’ll defend anyone’s right to protest, but there’s something to be said for appearance and strategy. For example, I don’t think blocking the interstate has ever won anyone over to a particular cause.
Me personally, if I were going to a protest and I expected trouble, I’d conceal carry. I think a lot of us here have the same mindset (hence USCCA), that we want to be prepared for trouble without trouble finding us. I’m afraid that’s what happens sometimes, when people show up looking like they just spent all their money at an Army surplus store.
But even though that’s not what I would do, I will grant that there may be some legitimacy to looking like a hardened target. Especially if you know there are counter protesters out there who are looking for trouble. I guess the difference is that I’ve not yet found myself compelled to attend a rally where everyone is expecting violence.
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I watch many of John’s videos and find very good information in them. John’s main point is to have an exchange of ideas, not weapons. Both sides seem to shut off any dialog and stifle that free exchange. So I’m not sure how this relates to coming to a protest in full battle gear. I think you need to understand your opponents and figure out how to open up that rift. Especially in these trying times coming to a protest in full battle gear intimidates many people and doesn’t help get the dialog started which is exactly the opposite of what John is saying.
Those that oppose our rights do claim that. I have seen people at rallies OC and with plate carriers and rifles, I can’t recall seeing anyone appear intimidated, and I surely was not.
You mean like deplatforming anyone on the Right that they decide they do not like for whatever reasons? The VCDL Lobby Day page just got removed from FB, and their email server, Mailchimp, has also now just blocked them. This is right before the Lobby Day on January 18, 2021. If they hated VCDL so much, why did they wait to now to remove them? Quite clear why they did it when they did. The VCDL has never had any violence at any of their rallies, even last year with tens of thousands of people there, there were no issues.
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@Eric163 I had the opportunity to attend the VCDL Lobby Day in 2020. Plenty of folks showed up in full battle-rattle, I didn’t. To each his/her own. It was the most polite crowd I ever encountered. Peaceful people assembling to voice their concerns about infringements of their Constitutional rights.
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Your adversaries lost all interest the free exchange of ideas a LONG time ago. No one who has seen war and has a family wants to see it in his/her homeland. How do we avoid that? Ah-ha! THAT’s where many of us still disagree.
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Armed crowds tend to be polite.
There are plenty of Democrats and Republicans at my range. They never argue over politics while on the line.
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A bit more than that @Quade5. Folks realized that we were setting an example. We put our best foot forward. Same for policing up our trash before we left. There was one single arrest when a young woman refused to remove her mask.
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As Bob Heinlein once said…
“An armed society is a peaceful society”
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What does it serve to pack the Capitol Building with 25K National Guard in full combat attire?
Some will argue that too.
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It’s cheaper than buying them all dress uniforms.
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Funny…how the “defund the police” crowd now demands protection. 10-20,000 troops??? REALLY???
Hey Comrade’s Biden and Harris…just move inauguration to Portland!!! Problem solved…
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I think protesting in combat gear is ill-advised, but as far as the question posed…
I believe a peaceful protest in combat gear is supposed to serve as a warning to the government. I think it’s supposed to remind the government that we the people will only be pushed so far before we fight back. I believe it is also an implicit threat to do so if the government keeps doing whatever is being protested.
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The point of peacely protesting in full combat attire is this.
To show the government that “we the people” have our own military division. The US militia is made up of hundreds of thousands of people. To show that “we the people” will I buy the second amendment to protect the Constitution from an oversized government.
Also to prove that when antifa isn’t around things can be peaceful.
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OK, I was armed at a local rally for president Trump and tho it was only a pistol in my shoulder rig, I can see what these Patriots are doing. And while it may be a little different, from what I’ve personally heard from those who wear full battle rattle, is that it’s a more modern stance against the government that has been taking away our rights bit by bit.
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Actually, it is born of the fear of being attacked by the police or whatever armed thugs the police may allow to attack the protesters for protesting peacefully.
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