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This week’s Anti-Fascist includes a very long video where I advocate for an armed populace to deter government overreach.

Here’s the video and below that is the script.

SCRIPT:

Hi, are you sick of ICE’s bullshit, especially if you live in Minnesota?

If so, my name is Mark Wasson and I’m a reporter in the Twin Cities.

Today I’m gonna talk about why all of us should be armed to the teeth.

This is gonna be a long one so I’m sorry.

So, while there is a very important discussion in the U.S. about gun control, it’s largely led by liberals who think we can simply legislate our way out of fascism.

There’s a saying that if you go far enough left, you get your guns back and I am squarely in the camp that everyone from oppressed classes, including women, people of color and those from the LGBTQ+ community should, at the very least, be proficient in firearm use.

Guns have historically been the great equalizer when it comes to government overreach. The police and the military think a lot harder about violating your natural civil rights if they know you’re armed.

Today, I'll talk about two examples of that and how neoliberal politicians use gun control in order to more easily enact state repression policies.

First, let’s take a look at why the state largely moved away from using violence to confront right wing extremism.

In 1992, federal paramilitary forces seeking to arrest neo-Nazi Randy Weaver for allegedly attempting to purchase a sawed-off shotgun culminated in an event now called the Ruby Ridge Standoff.

I’m not going to go into the specifics of the investigation or into super detail about the events, it’s fucking wild and I suggest reading up on it.

But it evolved into an intelligence gathering mission where U.S. Marshal Art Roderick shot the Weaver family dog and then shot and killed Weaver’s son, Samuel, after he fired back. In response, a Weaver family friend shot and killed U.S. Marshal Williams Degan Jr.

Federal agents then laid siege to the Weaver family compound for several days. During the siege, an FBI sniper named Lon Horiuchi shot Weaver, his friend and Weaver’s wife, Vicki. Vicki was killed by the sniper. She was holding the couple’s ten-month old baby when the government murdered her.

Now, I don’t believe anyone has a moral obligation not to harm Nazis, but, the blowback from this event, coupled with other events like the murder of children due to FBI incompetence during a similar siege in Waco, TX, changed government policy when confronting right wing extremism.

While the feds filed criminal charges against Randy Weaver, he was only convicted of missing a prior court date and violating his bail conditions. The family friend who killed the fed was acquitted of a first-degree murder charge.

In total, the government paid out about $3 million dollars to the Weaver family in settlements from lawsuits stemming from the feds Ruby Ridge murder spree.

And the family friend who killed the U.S. Marshal? He got almost $400k in a settlement with the government for his civil rights lawsuit regarding the event.

This outcome, and the fact that the far right anti-government types are now full-on boot lickers, means that cops, federal and state, treat right-wing extremists with kid gloves because they either sympathize with them or they’re scared they’ll actually get hurt.

And that brings me to my second example, cops being scared of being hurt for violating our civil rights is why Ronald Reagan, the NRA, Republicans and Democrats led the charge for gun control in California while Reagan, may he rest in piss, was governor in the 1960s.

That’s weird right? Well cops were scared because members of the Black Panthers started showing up to traffic stops with firearms due to police violence being directed at the Black community.

In response, the California legislature purposed the Mulford Act, which was aimed at disarming the Black Panthers but also had the effect of disarming any civilians who sought to curb state violence.

In response to that bill, Black Panthers showed up with firearms to the State Capitol, a picture of which you can see here.

This scared politicians because they don’t like the potential of violent consequences to the laws they create, which spreads violence into the communities they represent through ill-trained and racist police forces.

The bill passed with overwhelming support from both parties because it doesn’t matter if a politician has an R or a D behind their name, they know that if the populace is heavily armed, there might be some very real consequences for their decisions.

And now, in 2025, liberals have essentially abdicated their responsibility to arm themselves to defend against government overreach.

This means that there is now a wide disparity of firearm ownership that falls along ideological lines, which has led to the ramping up of an ethnic cleansing program and the destruction of public health and education in the country.

As a reporter I’ve covered protests across a wide range of political beliefs. And while they look like dorks, right-wing dipshits will show up in body armor with AR-15 style rifles, and liberals show up in pink pussy hats.

Is it any wonder that state violence is generally directed only one way?

Now, I don’t condone violence but I fully support self defense. Don’t go out and do something crazy. Think about your community, your family, your friends and what you can do to help serve them the best.

And remember, keep your head up and your fist clenched. We’ll get through this together.