Guns, Knives, Flagpoles, And A Skateboard: A Guide To The Weapons At The Capitol Riot
On Jan. 16, FBI agents executed a search warrant at the Wylie, Texas, home of alleged Capitol rioter Guy Reffitt. In his bedroom, agents found a holster with a Smith & Wesson semiautomatic handgun that they suspected he’d brought to Washington.
Reffitt wasn’t immediately charged with weapons offenses, but prosecutors argued to keep him in jail on the grounds that he’d traveled with the pistol and an AR-15 rifle “to participate in an armed insurrection.” In June, a federal grand jury returned an indictment that charged him not only with bringing firearms for a “civil disorder” on Jan. 6, but also specifically with carrying the pistol on Capitol grounds. Late last month, prosecutors disclosed a photo of the gun for the first time, along with images from the Capitol that they said would support their case at trial.
At least 85 people are charged with carrying or using a weapon during the Capitol riots, according to BuzzFeed News’ analysis of court records. The US attorney’s office in Washington has said that approximately 140 police officers were assaulted on Jan. 6, and the majority of defendants charged with weapon-related offenses are also accused of using those objects to attack police. Some are charged with using weapons to break windows, and others are charged simply with having weapons at the Capitol, a crime in itself.
A weapons charge significantly ups the stakes in these cases. A class-A misdemeanor for illegally going into the Capitol carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison. If a defendant also had a “deadly or dangerous” weapon — one of the crimes that Reffitt was indicted for — the maximum sentence jumps to 10 years behind bars. A defendant can face up to 8 years in prison for assaulting an officer, or 20 years if they did it with a weapon. Whether a defendant is accused of carrying a weapon has been a major factor in fights over who should stay in jail pending trial.
Reffitt is one of three people charged with carrying a gun onto Capitol grounds; no one is charged so far with having a gun inside the building. Two others are charged with bringing guns and explosives to Washington. Thousands of supporters of former president Donald Trump descended on the complex that day, and conservative politicians and commentators — including Trump — have either pushed a false narrative that there was no evidence that anyone had a gun, or pointed to the relatively small number of cases involving firearms as evidence that the riot wasn’t all that violent or dangerous to the police officers protecting the building and to the elected officials, congressional employees, and journalists inside.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/capitol-riot-weapons-charges?ref=bfnsplash
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It doesn't have to be a gun to be a weapon!
= new reply since forum marked as read
