this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2025
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United States | News & Politics
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If you're wielding a gun I don't think you are a protester.
As a veteran, I wish that I could band enough veterans together to protect these and other protests, whilst being armed to intimidate any bad actors from the thought of preventing people from the right to organize and protest under the constitution. FYI, I work closely with cops (but not working for them) in my new line of work and they are a bunch of dickheads that need to be reminded that there are people with a shit more training that could make life uneasy for them (because of yellow belly's).
All of this to say, while I don't disagree with you, ideally all protesters would be unarmed. Until they have some form of protection that doesn't involve cops gassing and shooting them with rubber bullets, or people driving their vehicle through the crowd. They deserve protection from people that still believe in the constitution and especially the people that swore an oath to uphold it.
Easier said than done sadly.
I'm more worried about the double edged sword that creates. Sure, you have more people protecting the protests, but then they could see that as an escalation which means more cops or ICE and potentially more bad actors. Now you're gonna need more protection and next thing you know you are in an arms race with ICE with an ever increasing risk of shit going down. It's definitely a tricky situation, but based on some of the videos I saw of agitators during these protests, they were looking for a fight. And whether it was a gun or a car, some of them did start a fight.