What If: Trump Had Asked Supporters to Bring Guns to Rally January 6?
by John Lawrence
Trump was a big supporter of the 2nd Amendment. Did we just dodge a bullet so to speak when he didn't encourage his followers to open carry at his January 6 rally? Most, if not all, Trump supporters are gun advocates. Things might have turned out very differently if they had had their guns with them when they invaded the Capitol. Thank God that for whatever reason most of the insurrectionists didn't have their guns with them although even without guns that many people bent on mayhem could have done a lot more damage, especially to human lives, than they actually did. As it ended, American democracy was still intact unlike the situation in Myanmar where they really know how to put on a coup. But let January 6 be a wake up call for Americans that want to preserve our time honored system and the rule of law.
Fast Company reported:
"Days before the chaos, according to The Washington Post, it became clear from discussions on far-right internet forums that mobs would transport guns with them to Washington D.C., which has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. That was correct: during and after the mayhem, arrests were made for weapons possession, and authorities recovered at least five handguns and long guns from the scene. ...
"Gun laws are relatively tight in the nation’s capital. Open carry is forbidden; concealed carry is only allowed with a permit from D.C., and not from any other state. Guns must be registered, and there’s an assault weapons ban in place. The Capitol itself is a gun-free zone. (Which is why, earlier this week, D.C.’s chief of police said he planned to inform Lauren Boebert, an incoming Colorado congresswoman who claimed she would be bringing her Glock to work, that she would face penalties if she did so.)
"Of course, the far-right mobs ignored those laws, and the Capitol’s metal detectors, by smashing the windows and climbing through. But, gun laws still matter, Brady says, certain that the damage would have been a lot worse had laws been looser. In May, disrupters in Michigan, an open-carry state, marched into the State Capitol to protest pandemic lockdowns, armed with semi-automatic rifles, which are typically rigged to fire rapidly. “If we had had that scene yesterday,” she says, “it would have been absolutely lethal.”'
So do we have to thank the fact that Washington DC has strict gun laws and open carry is forbidden, presumably even at Trump's rally, that America is still a democracy? Let that sink in. If American democracy is to fail, which it came so close to doing on January 6, it will probably be because of the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution and how it's been interpreted by the courts.
So the 2nd Amendment in and of itself could be the downfall of American democracy if we get another Trump like actual gun nut elected as President. Trump himself was only a gun nut in rhetoric only. I doubt if he ever killed a deer or a possum or a rabbit being a city kid from New York City. But some of these more rural southern politicians are not gun nuts in name only. They are the type who invaded the Michigan Capitol carrying firearms. If that was the rehearsal for the insurrection in DC, it was a rehearsal that didn't materialize in a better performance thanks to Washington's strict gun laws. Let that be a lesson to all of us.
Switzerland has a stunningly high rate of gun ownership. yet it has very few mass shootings or gun violence. Why? The Swiss have strict rules for who can get a gun, and take firearm training very seriously. Most Swiss men are required to learn how to use a gun. So it isn't like the US where any bird brained or mentally deranged wahoo can exercise his privilege to own a gun. The Swiss require gun owners to be trained and licensed just like we require drivers of automobiles to be in the US. Maybe we should take a page out of their book.
