What happened on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021? Some see an insurrection. They see an unprecedented intentional, pre-meditated rebellion tied directly to sedition by the former president. Others see a crowd that morphed into a mob with a bunch of very bad apples mixed in. The bad apples, they say, purposively turned violent. Originally disorganized protesters embedded with extremists. Political pundits and opinionizers will paint their interpretations of events from whichever colors they mix from their pallets. But was there an insurrection without firearms?
The Facts – An Insurrection Without Firearms
To historians (if there are any left with integrity), real facts are all that matter. They have to find and follow the evidence. So, consider these facts. As of this writing, no one who entered the Capitol building had a firearm. Not a single person. We know this by reviewing all the indictments and arrest records of each of the individuals charged so far.
And what does that record reveal? Numerous persons are charged with carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon. But in each of those cases the “weapons” were anything other than firearms. Some people used riot shields. Some had poles. In one case a person had a taser. There were other miscellaneous items.
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. Another person (William Watson) was found to have mace and a pocketknife. He made it inside the Capitol, but Capitol Police acknowledged that Watson tried to help calm the crowd. Hardly the behavior of a man intended on a coup d’état.
Christopher Alberts had a firearm that day. But he also did not get inside the building. Then there was Grant Moore. His parked vehicle near the Capitol contained a pistol found in a backpack sitting in the passenger seat.
And that is it. No one was arrested or charged with carrying a firearm of any type into the Capitol building that day. Not a single pistol. No revolvers. No automatic weapons. There was not a single firearm – no guns at all.
Now we do not belittle the riot that day. It was totally unacceptable at any level. Peaceful protest is the hallmark of dissent. Violence is the bludgeon of authoritarians. No doubt that events spiraled out of control on January 6th. The Capitol Police were horribly unprepared.
But the facts show (so far) that no one inside of that building that day was carrying a firearm (other than the Capitol Police themselves). An insurrection without firearms? Maybe in the 15th century, but hardly imaginable in the 21st century.
We do not quibble with fists – they are dangerous weapons in their own rights. But let us be realistic. Can anyone imagine organizing and executing an overthrow of the United States government without any firearms? Fists are not the weapons of “rebels” intending to take the Capitol. What we witnessed that day, and history will ultimately record, was largely a mob running wild – and a police force that, for reasons unexplainable so far, was grossly unprepared to contain that mob.
Complete Breakdown of Defense
The American people deserve a serious explanation. Not so much, perhaps, about what people in that crowd did that day. Most of it is on video tape. Rather, the American people demand an understanding as to how the Capitol Police could be overwhelmed so easily. How could the Capitol and its occupants, under any circumstances, be left effectively unprotected? (Seriously – they deployed waist-high metal barriers that a solid 13-year-old could knock over with his feet). Especially since days earlier, as no one disputes, they were warned that protests were coming. Even the former President had pre-authorized the National Guard for protection.
It is all a complete disgrace. Who was involved in the “defense” planning before that day? The Speaker of the House? The Capitol Police Chief? Was the Army involved? Who else? There was a complete breakdown of vision, strategy, and deployment. 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. And that must be unimaginable in the United States. It must be.