Isn't It Unlawful Assembly, when so many have guns?

[laserhaas]

If not, there should be! So many rifles in "open carry" Virginia, were assembled together, the police (and possibly even the national guard) could have been overwhelmed. Some even disguised themselves in camo!

Just sayin.....

Shheesshh...

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7 votes, 1 pass | Time left: Unlimited
	There should be a law against massive fire power
	4 (57%)
	Nope 2nd Amendment prevents
	3 (43%)
	Who Cares
	0 (0%)
	Somebody oughta shoot Laser
	0 (0%)
	1 DU member did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[exboyfil]

1. Only if the armed party is black

[Downtown Hound]

2. Unlawful assembly applies to liberals and anarchists, no one else. n/t

[Marengo]

18. Were the armed antifa counter protesters arrested?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/us/who-were-the-counterprotesters-in-charlottesville.html

[Downtown Hound]

23. LOL. I don't know about Charlottesville, but in the past? Oh yes.

By the hundreds. For doing much less that what those fascist pricks did.

[Marengo]

25. In that case, why not at Charlottesville or Phoenix? What has changed?

[Downtown Hound]

26. I don't know. Ask the cops. n/t

[tblue37]

3. McAuliffe sort of said that's why LEOs didn't intervene--b/c they were outgunned. nt

[laserhaas]

6. WOW

Did not know that was the case

[tblue37]

10. VA governor defends Charlottesville response: Militia members had 'better' guns than police:

http://www.businessinsider.com/virginia-gov-mcauliffe-defends-charlottesville-police-better-semiautomatic-guns-white-nationalists-2017-8

VA governor defends Charlottesville response: Militia members had 'better' guns than police

Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe defended the actions taken Saturday by state and local law enforcement in response to clashes between white nationalist protesters and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, VA.

McAuliffe told The New York Times in an impromptu street interview Sunday morning that police in Charlottesville did their best considering the circumstances.

“It’s easy to criticize, but I can tell you this, 80% of the people here had semiautomatic weapons," McAuliffe said.

snip

“You saw the militia walking down the street, you would have thought they were an army ... I was just talking to the State Police upstairs; [the militia members] had better equipment than our State Police had,” McAuliffe said. “And yet not a shot was fired, zero property damage.”


snip

[Wounded Bear]

11. Yeah, assuming that the initial cops on scene...

just had standard issue sidearms, handguns for those who don't know. Most places in the US the beat cops don't carry assault rifles, that's reserved for SWAT and special ops groups.

[Lee-Lee]

20. Almost all officers in the US have rifles or shotguns in the car now

Especially all your smaller and mid sized agencies.

I was issued a shotgun in a very rural NC Sheriff's department in 1994 with the option to carry a rifle if I bought it myself and it was one the department firearms trainer approved- and I did because I'm not a big shotgun shooter.

[jmg257]

22. Wow - cops are now afraid of a possible armed confrontation? Holy shit are we in trouble!

State police AND local police prefer to not getting involved?

Everyone for themselves, I guess.

[redstatebluegirl]

4. I hate guns in general, but they certainly should not be allowed to be carried in a protest .

[laserhaas]

8. Even more proper...ptotocol

If there is a known mass gathering, protest or otherwise (say a funeral etc.)

then guns are forbidden..except by authorities

[tblue37]

12. These militia types use their guns to intimidate and to suppress those

who want to speak against them.

They mean it to be seen as a real threat.

[redstatebluegirl]

13. But the guy who brandished all the guns in Charlottesville was a crying fool

When he thought the police were coming after him. A little snowflake with a ton of guns, looked like a small penis to me.

[oneshooter]

32. But baseball bats are ok? n/t

[laserhaas]

5. Yup...that's what we figured..

Could you imagine just 3 A.A. assembled together, with guns....

Or if a group of Black Panthers showed up???

There would have been a war like dynamics, resultant..

[Marengo]

19. Some antifa were armed at Charlottesville. How many shots were fired?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/us/who-were-the-counterprotesters-in-charlottesville.html

[jmg257]

7. If carrying guns is lawful, why would a peaceful gathering be unlawful?

Unlawful assembly is a legal term to describe a group of people with the mutual intent of deliberate disturbance of the peace.

here's a good article on the groups involved...

https://www.thetrace.org/2017/08/charlottesville-may-change-debate-armed-militias-open-carry/

Christian Yingling, a militia leader from Pennsylvania, whose 32-man team arrived in the college town bearing loaded assault-style weapons and sidearms, told the Washington Post that his group came to defend free speech and maintain order. “Our mission was to help people exercise their First Amendment rights without being physically assaulted,” he said.

[laserhaas]

9. And you arearguing, what - exactly?

That these guys had no violence being considered?

[jmg257]

14. Not really arguing anything. According to them they were there to maintain peace

and supposedly did more to do so than police.

One team of reporters covering the rally observed that militia members did more to quell confrontations in Charlottesville than the city and state police, who are drawing strong criticism for allowing the violence to spiral fatally out of control. But as early as 10 a.m., according to the same dispatch, a group of counter-protesters, “many of them older and gray-haired” was bloodied by a mob of white supremacists undiscouraged by neither the police nor the militias’ presence.

Guess its hard to pass a law against assembly, armed or otherwise, that doesn't involve some other 'charge' (violence, unpeaceful, rioting, etc.). It was tried to regulate the private militias in the 90's, with little success.

"State anti-paramilitary laws are often ignored because they have few teeth, says Pitcavage. “You can take a case federal with conspiracy laws and get much more time and potentially much harsher penalties than with most of the state laws,” he says. “In some of these cases, the feds don’t even give the state the option. They come in and they just charge these guys with conspiracy and there’s no need for the state to try and apply a paramilitary training statute.”

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/paramilitary-militia-laws-training/

[laserhaas]

15. Then there outta be a new, clarifying, law

It is against the law to impersonate police.

These gun trotting haters came close enough to warrant a trial to clarify.

IMO

[jmg257]

16. Here ya go...Virginia Penal Code..

Impersonating law-enforcement officer; penalty

Any person who falsely assumes or exercises the functions, powers, duties, and privileges incident to the office of sheriff, police officer, marshal, or other peace officer, or any local, city, county, state, or federal law-enforcement officer, or who falsely assumes or pretends to be any such officer, is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. A second or subsequent offense is punishable as a Class 6 felony.

[jmg257]

17. I take it any armed anti-KKK protesters in Durham & VA should also be charged and expected

to go to trial?

Protesters, some armed, march through downtown Durham - WTVD
abc11.com/protesters-some-armed-march-through-downtown-durham/2321767/
1 hour ago - Officials say avoid downtown Durham as a large crowd of demonstrators march through the area.
Friday morning, at least two protest groups converged on each other outside of the Old Courthouse. ABC11's crew on the scene saw several protesters armed with guns, axes and other weapons.

A group of {picture of apparently armed} counterprotesters who identified themselves as antifa, or anti-fascists, rested during a rally of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday. Credit Edu Bayer for The New York Times

[Marengo]

21. What about the antifa gun trotters at Charlottesville

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/us/who-were-the-counterprotesters-in-charlottesville.html

[laserhaas]

24. They are not dressed up to look like cops in camouflage

There outta be a Code/Statute - defining

[jmg257]

27. That should be easy to articulate!

No wearing camo clothing while carrying guns in public (unless you are hunting?).
No black clothes and guns.
No blue clothes and guns.
No grey clothes and guns.
No brown cloths and guns.
No green cloths and guns.

Hmmm...may be be easier to say: "anyone wishing to open carry a gun in public must wear a pink vest", or some other civilian-identifying symbol.

[laserhaas]

28. Apple to orange compare

Disingenuous

[jmg257]

29. Not really. LOTS of police uniforms - LOTS of civilian outfits look close enough.

Camo actually seems not all that popular with PDs.

But black on black? Blue on blue? green on green? Very PD hip!

ETA: although I guess SWAT teams may give camo a nod or 2.

[oneshooter]

33. How about this

" No hiding of identity while in public and armed with any club, bat, pipe, wooden stave or firearm."

[Marengo]

30. Shouldn't they also be guilty of unlawful assembly, regardless of their attire?

[laserhaas]

31. Dont know the code; but - purportedly - they had a permit

Permit to assemble - that is.

No permit to carry guns.
(einder how many were out of state, gun carriers)?