Piece writes: "A fcking crossbow? Did these clowns think they were facing off against the Saxons at Hastings?"
Trump rioters. (photo: Getty)
14 January 21
There is something visceral in the crossbow that makes this litany from the Book of Armaments feel deadlier.
A fcking crossbow? Did these clowns think they were facing off against the Saxons at Hastings?
NBC News has the 411 on the personal arsenals that the insurrectionists brought along with them to Washington in order to express their economic anxiety and defend the Constitution through the ancient art of vandalism. And, yes, I know there are modern crossbows that people use in their pursuit of the ferocious white-tailed deer, and I am aware that the primary weapons of the mob included metal barricades, an American flag, and a fire extinguisher, but this catalogue of deadly weaponry does not fail to astonish, and there is something visceral in the crossbow that makes this litany from the Book of Armaments feel deadlier.
Only 75 people were arrested on the day of the Capitol siege, and police were not stopping and frisking random protesters. Yet the authorities still turned up a wide array of weapons among the tiny slice of protesters who were arrested before and after the Capitol invasion.The haul included an assault rifle, a crossbow and 11 Molotov cocktails — all found in the car of an Alabama man.Others had brass knuckles and pocket knives, stun guns and "stinger whips."In all, police recovered a dozen guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition from seven people who were arrested before and after the Capitol riot, according to a review of court documents. One man, Lonnie Coffman of Alabama, was found with a massive arsenal that included five guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, federal prosecutors say.
Then, there was this guy.
Another man, Cleveland Grover Meredith, drove to Washington from Colorado with an assault-style Tavor X95 rifle with a telescopic sight, a Glock 9 mm with high-capacity magazines and more than 2,500 rounds of ammunition, including at least 320 rounds of "armor-piercing bullets," according to federal prosecutors.
As one does, if one is planning to seize the Crimea.
We can safely say that even larger arsenals got away cleanly and are now laying around dens and family rooms next to the Bibles and back copies of National Review. The startling thing—outside, of course, of the fact that we somehow didn't have an absolute bloodbath on the Capitol steps—is that I believe that a lot of these people did arm themselves for self-defense, except that they were "defending" themselves against the Washington in their heads, the one that had been carefully constructed there by their favorite radio and TV stars, and by a lot of the politicians inside the Capitol, the same ones who now are deploring the violence and asking for healing and reconciliation.
They brought their firepower to "defend" themselves against big-government liberals, and the many members of antifa and Black Lives Matter who now sit in places of power in the federal government. What if AOC and the rest of The Squad showed up on the National Mall with grenade-launchers? What then, huh? These people have more monsters rattling around in their heads than you can find in a Japanese horror film. The problem is that, sooner or later, they're going to open fire on some of these phantoms and hit some real people. I don't know what happens then.
