Already, 2020 had been a record year for gun sales in the United States: 21 million guns sold, up 73% from 2019. After the Capitol attack last week, they have exploded. Ammunition stocks are exhausted. Some stores only sell them with the purchase of a weapon. Everyone is preparing for what will happen during the weekend.
This mad race for guns reflects the concern that is gripping the whole country faced with a combination of distressing calamities: explosion of the pandemic, unemployment and, above all, a presidential election accompanied by civil unrest instigated by a mad emperor who refuses his status as a loser.
A pro-Trump national uprising is to be feared
The FBI is planning “armed protests” in all 50 state capitals and Washington starting over the weekend. According to US federal security, these troubles will continue until the inauguration of Joe Biden next Wednesday and perhaps after. Death threats have been made against Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi.
Not wanting to be caught off guard a second time, authorities deploy 15,000 members of the National Guard in Washington. The military reserve force announces that it is monitoring the situation across the country and that it is preparing to support the local police.
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The intelligence services warn that the armed elements are preparing, on the day of Biden’s swearing in, to lead a new assault on the Capitol. The word “war” is used by extremists in their exchanges. Sixteen pro-Trump groups have indicated that they intend to participate in the protest.
The American far right has been at war for months. In the spring, activists staged protests in many state capitals to oppose measures to combat the pandemic and assert their right to carry firearms. Protesters in camouflage uniforms armed with assault rifles surrounded the Kentucky Capitol on Saturday swearing their unwavering loyalty to Trump.
• Read also: It’s heating up for Trump and his fans
On the off chance that a Michigan legislative committee just voted to ban openly carrying firearms inside the State Capitol. It was until now legal. Only in America! The FBI foiled a plot in October to kidnap and kill his governor.
The Pentagon is just waiting for the order to intervene
Police departments, even backed by the National Guard, will hardly be able to contain armed pro-Trump militants if they simultaneously attack all of the U.S. Capitols. Law enforcement forces will be overwhelmed. The Pentagon could then be called upon to intervene more directly. He too has been preparing for it for a long time.
The US Northern Command was created in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attack to “plan, organize and execute missions of home defense and of support to civilian authorities.” ”
But do you ever know? As German Chancellor Bismarck said: “There is a providence that protects fools, drunks, children and the United States of America. “
In the wake of the presidential elections, the United States is more divided than ever as Trump refuses defeat with the support of a majority of elected officials and Republican voters. Normand Lester explains, in his new book Stupid and dangerous. The United States in the Trump Age, how the country got there.