I agree. "Treason" likely doesn't apply in this situation.
But 'Insurrection" and 'Sedition" manifestly do.
I prefer 'insurrectionist'....'cause it is easier to type than 'seditious conspirator'.
But that's just me.
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Well, yeah, some of them did bring guns. The record is replete with some guns being confiscated, others being observed on the person of rioters by Capitol Police. Even the J6 Committee offered evidence that guns were being carried by members of the crowd at the Ellipse. Some carriers refused to enter the area because of the metal detectors.
A little googling can bring up any number of publications reporting on the evidence for firearms at the Capitols and environs.
The confiscation of guns though......was surprisingly small. But, as the police readily admit----- they were so overwhelmed by the numbers of attackers and fending off the baseball bats, MACE sprays, nail-tipped flagpoles, tasers, various thrown objects that actually arresting and handcuffing the worst offenders was beyond their abilities and their numbers at the time of the attacks.
Those that were arrested happened late in the attack when re-enforcements finally began to arrive on the scene. It is widely ....widely ....acknowledged that many many performing criminal acts simply walked away that day. Hence, volunteer organizations like SeditionHunters* have sprung up to hunt-down those whose mugs were captured on cameras or posted on social media sites.
May SeditionHunters keep up their good work. And the FBI. And the DOJ.
Bring 'em all to justice. And punish 'em as their actions deserve.
IMHO
*Oh, by the way, there was interesting reportage recently...from one of the militia trials where an officer was asked why he didn't fire upon the attackers. He said.....he was afraid of igniting a 'firestorm' of bullets as the attackers pulled out their own guns and fired back. He said there were so many of the attackers and he couldn't have that much ammunition on him. I thought that was a telling observation. IMHO
* Perp Sheet
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We know.
It's called schadenfreude.
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Ditto that.
Well said.
We all....all of us patriots...can agree with Care4all.
True that.
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Yes, there were boneheads and fantasists who brought guns. And others who had AR15s in the trunks of their parked cars. What they thought would happen in Washington is anybody's guess. If you asked them, they might tell they were to protect the demonstration from the violence of AntiFa counter protestors. By 'they' I meant the majority of Capitol invaders, but it was a clumsy wording.
Put it this way: if you and I were planning a genuine 'insurrection' -- say against a government we both dislike, like Mr Putin's or the Iranian regime -- I assume, unless we were suicidal, that we would want the insurrectionists to be as heavily armed as possible. As I said earlier, what happened in 6 Jan was neither a 'normal' riot (expressing general discontent) nor an 'insurrection' (aiming to replace the existing government). It was an act of mass disorder, which included some violence, aimed to getting the government to do a specific thing. There doesn't seem to be a word for it.
But maybe they had fantasies of .... what? Seizing power? All x-100 of them? If so, then, as was said of someone else, they should be given a medal and then shot. (By our side. For monumental malicious stupidity. Just kidding, Mr Public Prosecutor.)
And of course, if you arrest any random crowd of a thousand normal Americans, you're going to come with handguns.... I won't guess the number but I'll bet it would be surprising ...
It's the curse of our movement, romantics and fantasists, our own version of the Black Panther Party. But ... any large movement will have such people -- one of your guys got badly wounded in Kenosha when he unwisely pointed a gun at Kyle Rittenhouse.
Seditious Conspiracy and similar concepts is a dangerous thing to have a government get in the habit of using against people it doesn't like. The Communist Party in the US had most of its main leadership sent to prison because of that way of thinking, although in their case the charges would have been about one million times more valid than any such charges brought against the Oathkeepers and their like. Fortunately, the Supreme Court knocked the main act embodying this stuff out in 1957 (incidentally allowing a friend of mine who was awaiting trial in prison under the Smith Act to walk free).
