...guns in the attack on the Capitol, January 6th....

[Chillicothe]

"The Capitol Police at the time, had no clue about whether any protesters were armed with any firearms."

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Well, per reportage they....DID....have a clue.
I've seen zero reportage that said they were completely ignorant that firearms were amongst the mob of attackers.

One, the police reported armed participants at the Rally at the Ellipse.
Second, reports show that officers had seen weapons tucked in waistbelts.
They knew SOME of the violent angry mob had firearms.
I cannot say for sure, but I would suspect that police communications via earpieces were passed back and forth amongst officers or at least commanders on the scene.

We know such communications were going on as we heard in the J6 Committee the dire shouts of officers informing all that they had "lost the line" (meaning police lines had been flanked or breached).

 

[Tommy Tainant]

News reports from several outlets are covering this MAGA gun-nut who was shooting from the scaffold at the Capitol during the attack by Trump supporters. I offer it here as another layer of context for the "unarmed" mantra so many of the MAGA/QAnon'rs spout about January 6th.
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"Prosecutors Charge Man With Firing Shots Outside the Capitol on Jan.6"​

The charges once again laid bare one of the most persistent myths about the attack promoted by pro-Trump politicians and media figures: that none of the rioters were armed.

A Donald Trump supporter charged with firing a gun outside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack was ordered detained by a federal judge in Chicago on Wednesday after prosecutors argued his conduct was "mind-numbingly dangerous" and no conditions of his release could guarantee public safety.

John Banuelos was publicly identified in an NBC News story in February 2022, but it wasn't until last month that another Jan. 6 rioter published video footage that appeared to show Banuelos firing the weapon that was seen in his waistband.
One of the most persistent lies about the Capitol attack — often made by Republican politicians and right-wing media figures — is that none of the hundreds of rioters who stormed the building had guns. On Thursday night, former President Donald J. Trump repeated the false claim on social media while responding to remarks about Jan. 6 that President Biden had made during his State of the Union address.
“The so-called ‘Insurrectionists’ that he talks about had no guns,” Mr. Trump wrote. “They only had a Rigged Election.”

But the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation of Jan. 6 has revealed that several people at the Capitol were carrying firearms that day. Altogether, more than 1,300 rioters have been charged in connection with the attack and arrests continue almost daily."

Prosecutors Charge Man With Firing Shots Outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 (Published 2024)

The charges once again laid bare one of the most persistent myths about the attack promoted by pro-Trump politicians and media figures: that none of the rioters were armed.

www.nytimes.com

Awkward.