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Where are you reading that the protestors are armed? The linked NPR article does not say so. The NYTimes coverage [1] mentions that people posted pictures of weapons on Facebook on Tuesday, but does not mention that the people in the Capitol are armed.

Breaching into government buildings in response to spurious allegations of electoral fraud is bad enough - there's no need to taint the message with embellishment, and doing so gives ammunition to people who want to claim that critics of these events are spreading falsehoods.

1. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/06/us/electoral-vote




6 minutes ago (as of the time of this comment) the New York Times reports that 5 guns were seized by police: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/06/us/washington-dc-pro...


The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2021/jan/06/georgia... as well as first person accounts on Twitter from people who work in the capital.


If you’ve seen the NSFW video of the protestor getting shot in the neck while in the Capitol building, you would have noticed someone next to her holding a semi-auto rifle (AR-15, my best guess).


That guy is almost certainly police, seeing as he's shouting at the people to leave the building: https://i.imgur.com/teOuPwU.png

https://i.imgur.com/kJZnAHc.png

https://i.imgur.com/zzQWeZZ.jpg


That're obviously the police...


Not sure you can count tear gas and fire extinguishers as "armed" (that's what CSPAN is showing and reporting).

Then again, the lack of firearms is probably why Capitol Police are playing it so calm.


I mean my city counted wood shields, water bottles, and leaf blowers during the BLM protests. I don't think either group is armed but we should at least be apply the label consistently.




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