Yes, Capitol Rioters Were Armed. Here Are The Weapons Prosecutors Say They Used
a review of the federal charges against the alleged rioters shows that they did come armed, and with a variety of weapons: stun guns, pepper spray, baseball bats and flagpoles wielded as clubs.
Police officers have a much different memory of that day. "I've talked to officers who have done two tours in Iraq who said this was scarier to them than their time in combat," Robert J. Contee III, the acting chief of Washington, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department, said in January. At the time of his comments, he had just spoken with an officer who was attacked with a rioter's stun gun.
Federal court records, included in NPR's database of more than 300 criminal cases, allege that at least three dozen people who took part in the riot used or possessed some kind of weapon that day.
downplaying the violence also undermines efforts to combat domestic extremism more generally.
"There is a reluctance on the part of some in conservative circles to accept that domestic terrorism is largely coming from right-wing extremist groups,"
https://www.npr.org/2021/03/19/9778...ere-are-the-weapons-prosecutors-say-they-used