Virginia gun owner militia open carry
Courtesy Jeff Hulbert

The study examined 560 instances in which individuals – whether the protesters themselves or people who opposed them – brought firearms to demonstrations. In roughly one of every six of those demonstrations, “violent or destructive activity” ensued, the researchers found. At protests where no guns were present, one out of 37 turned violent.

Violent or destructive acts were carried out by both armed and unarmed protesters, the researchers said.

Violence and property destruction occurred after political rallies of all types at which arms were present, including Black Lives Matter protests, the researchers found. Kishi said 94% of Black Lives Matter protests, hundreds of which occurred around the country, were peaceful. 

“In contrast, demonstrations involving right-wing militias or militant social movements –such as the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, or the Three Percenters, among others – have turned violent or destructive over twice as often, or nearly 14% of the time,” she said in an email. 

— Will Carless in Armed protests are picking up, and a new study says they’re more likely to turn violent

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

95 COMMENTS

  1. So if the Proud Boys show up to stop the arsonists and antifa attacks them it’s a case of right wing violence, but if they don’t show up and the city burns it’s mostly peaceful. It’s like they think they can tell you that grass is blue and the sky is green and you’ll believe them.

    • “Statistics” from the pink-haired woke gender-studies degreed journalism hacks.
      I’ll give it the appropriate consideration.

      • The article is worded poorly. States that guns were brought to demonstrations, and some demonstrations turned violent. There’s no data mentioned supporting the assumption that the violence was due to the presence of guns.

        May as well say cough drops were brought to demonstrations by right wing individuals more than by left wing, so any ensuing violence was the fault of coughing.

    • Yes so Kenosha would be right wing violence, man, those right wing people just went through and burned that poor little town down didn’t they?

      And since any instance of a right led protest, prayer, or open air church was met by antifa goons who were allowed by police to attack… Those would also be labeled as right wing violence.

      If these stats are even accurate, then they likely just show the intolerance, hate, and violence of the militant left wing against any disapproved beliefs.

      • These a$$holes keep using the phrase “arned insurrection” if they want to see armed insurrection watch the coverage in Kabul !!!! Don;t watch on ABC PBS or CBS they only show mostly peaceful protests.

    • If the right lawfully assembles, and the local government lets leftist agitators come and do violence upon the the right, it’s a case of right wing violence; see Charlottesville.

    • That is how the current Political environment looks at things. I think the writer for USA Today is a leftist. I know the Proud Boys had a picnic and Antifa showed up with clubs and shields. They attacked the Proud Boys. I am sure that was counted as a Right wing starting it. Who are these idiots? Proud Boys went to Washington DC right after the election. 4 people including 1 Black woman. They were attacked and all stabbed by a leftists. Why did the Leftists have knives? Did they plan violence?

    • Just curious, but are you aware of who Mel Brooks named Governor Le Petomane after?
      A French performer from the days of the Moulin Rouge, this performer who was once the highest payed entertainer in the world was a Flatulist or in plain language, a professional Farter

  2. After seeing Antifa and BLM, it all becomes propaganda. But then this is why USA Today is useless.

    • I’m pretty sure that Antifa and BLM has RIOTS so is that the same as “protesting”?
      Like BLM and the McCloskeys, BLM started destroying property and threatened to burn down houses.
      Lets get the semantics correct, there is a difference between a protest and a riot.
      If it’s the left it’s a “protest”, if it’s the right it’s violence and rioting.
      That’s somehow twisted by MSM as in Did you see the “protest” in Minneapolis?
      Yes, the insurance companies are still trying to put a dollar amount on those claims.
      Did you see the “protest” in Kenosha? Yes they burned $2.5M of new cars.
      Did you see the riot or insurrection at the Capitol? Yes a bunch of people took selfies.

  3. “The study examined 560 instances in which individuals – whether the protesters themselves or people who opposed them – brought firearms to demonstrations.”

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

    So- bringing professional fireworks to shoot, frozen water bottles, pallets of bricks, various toxic liquids to spray in faces, bats, clubs, and especially a rabid, anti-American and anti-civilized society attitude as the centerpiece of the “protest” in the first place has absolutely no affect on the tone of the “event”?

    Great job convincing the American public, USA Today and Everytown. Nobody’s buying it any longer as being proven by the tens of thousands of converts attempting to purchase firearms daily as a result of those non-violent protests- you know, those led by antifa, BLM and other woke, progressive hoodlums.

    • “various toxic liquids to spray in faces, bats, clubs“

      As they did on January 6 at the United States Capitol during a joint session of Congress deliberating our presidential election under the mandate of the United States Constitution?

        • I saw a cop who got his head stuck in a door,
          very much like a baby who falls into a pail.
          When the cop woke up he still had his gun.
          He wasn’t sprayed with “various toxic liquids”.
          He wasn’t beaten by bats and clubs.
          He wants full disability and cried a lot.
          Sounds just like you minor, I’m sure you are the same.
          Did you get your head stuck in a door or fall into a pail?
          I bet you did when you were young, like high school.

      • Wow, nice tri-fer, MinorIQ – you managed to combined a non-sequitur, “whataboutism”, and a complete irrelevancy into one short response (I would include a few others, such as “inapt analogy” and “proportionality”, but if you managed to understand them, they’d make your head explode). If the response had made any sense at all, I’d be impressed. It didn’t, so I’m not.

        How’s that BRILLIANT, “best foreign policy mind in D.C.”, “will return normalcy to government” Faux POTUS doin’, Minor??? I hear he’s had a few . . . stumbles? . . . in his first 7 months. Apparently, from what I’m hearing, he really screwed the pooch in some third world s***-hole called “Ashcanistan”, or something like that.

        Does it ever impinge upon your limited rational capacity to perhaps wonder, “If he f***s everything else up this badly, perhaps his take on the 2A is screwed up, too”? Nah, didn’t think so.

  4. I wonder if they consider that frequently right wing protests are met with provocation by left wing radical groups. Also, the number of protests is a poor measure of how destructive they are. Left wing protests have caused major destruction in several cities totaling in the tens of millions, but if considered along with a few students hanging around the court house square with signs in the university town near me and probably hundreds of others the destruction is somewhat minimized for reporting purposes. The old cliche “Figures don’t lie, but liars can figure” seems to apply here!

    • “I wonder if they consider that frequently right wing protests are met with provocation by left wing radical groups.”

      Seriously- when was the last time you attended a “right wing-wing protest”? Other than a couple Trump rallies, which I wouldn’t term as “protests”, per se, I’ve never really seen one

      Oh, we have rallies but they would rarely be in the same category as a good, old, leftist/progressive protest.

  5. Defending yourself from the righteous pedophiles, burglars and wife beaters on the left as they chase you through town is often violent, yes.

  6. Instead of regurgitating this crap, why not counter the argument by adding some facts in this article? If this is a pro 2A site, let see the facts that support our cause.

    • Cato,

      Facts are irrelevant to our political enemies who view us as sub-humans outside of their “tribe”.

      In our political enemies’ minds, by definition virtually everything that they do is right and virtually everything that we do is wrong.

      Consider punching someone in the face without any obvious/immediate provocation:

      1) If a Progressive punches a Conservative in the face, that is justified because the Conservative is corrupt, threatens Progressive utopia, and has earned that sort of treatment/punishment.

      2) If a Conservative punches a Progressive in the face, that is wrong because the Conservative is a corrupt sub-human attacking an innocent Progressive and the very fabric of Progressive utopia.

      Presenting facts may appeal to a few fence-sitters. I question whether or not any potential gains are worth the effort.

      * Clarification: I am not suggesting that everyone who supports our inalienable right to keep and bear arms is Conservative. I was merely using the terms “Conservative” and “Progressive” to illustrate the result of tribalism.

      • Note the similarity to encouraging “punch a Nazi/Fascist.” The puncher gets to feel empowered and righteous. The punchee usually isn’t a self-declared Nazi waving a swastika. The puncher labels his victim as “Nazi” for whatever political disagreement he wants, and therefore is justified in instigating violence against that person. “That Nazi didn’t support government funded gender transition surgery for prepubescents, so I hit him in the mouth with the edge of my skateboard.”

      • I know liberals that are gun owners, one is an NRA member. Facts are important to getting fence sitters on our side, there are far more of them then there are far left, BLM supporting, Defund-the-police asswipes.

        Liberals that know me know that not all conservatives are evil. I present my opinions and back them up with facts.

        You can punch people in the face and try to win them over, I don’t think you’ll have much luck.

        • Do your liberal gun-owning friends know any facts that indicate any liberal politician is an open supporter of gun rights? And has a voting record to prove it?

        • They know exactly what the positions are of the people they vote for.

          They support gun rights and vote accordingly. They support candidates that are more like Joe Manchin than AOC.

          What’s your point?

        • My point

          “West Virginia Senate Bill 347, which would have allowed West Virginians to carry a concealed weapon without a permit, passed the State House (32 to 2) and State Senate (30 to 4) by wide margins. However, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin has vetoed the measure.”

          “As a law-abiding gun owner, hunter, card-carrying life member of the NRA and Second Amendment advocate,” Manchin said, SB 347 is “irresponsible and dangerous.”

          https://www.uslawshield.com/in-west-virginia-gov-tomblin-vetoes-constitutional-carry/

          My question to you is, Was Sen Manchin (D) wrong to a oppose a civil rights bill in his own home state?

          I’m sure as a well connected Democrat he has had a carry permit for decades now.

    • Cato,

      I agree with you that the article would have been far more effective if it had addressed the study in a more thorough way, citing facts and contrary studies/data. However, don’t deny the efficacy of simply alerting us to the existence of the study, and the nature of its conclusions. I can guarantee that the evil, lying witch Shannon Watts will be citing in on the daily, going forward. At least now I can (and have begun) do the research on my own. Not ideal, but still valuable, perhaps?

        • Don’t disagree (that was actually my first sentence), but . . . you are now on notice that the ‘study’ is out there. You KNOW it will be heavily cited by the anti-2A community.

          Sure, it would be great if the author had done a little more homework and actually fisked the study, but . . . even as lazy as I am (and I am lazy), I can bestir myself to spend an hour or two searching the nets and reading contrary studies. Not preferred, but I can do it.

          I was trying to make it clear that, while a better response would have been nice, getting notice of the issue was, ultimately, more important. Sorry if that came across as bagging on you; that was not my intent.

  7. And the Republican-run cities that burned last year were…?

  9. Everyday busy body everytown Gun Control zealots threaten Americans exercising a Constitutional Right…

    Climb down off your Gun Control high horse all you members of everytown…History shows you and your Gun Control filth make you the proprietors of an agenda rooted in racism and genocide. What Filth.

  11. “There are lies. There are damn lies. Then there are statistics.” Samuel Clemmons (I believe.)

    • Correlation does not equal causation. Especially in the reverse.

      Correlation is rich people drive Mercedes Benz cars. But driving a Mercedes Benz car does not make you rich. Unless you are a mechanic fixing the cars.

    • “There are three types of lies – lies, damn lies, and statistics.” Benjamin Disraeli

  12. I will say that it’s funny that USA Today makes no mention of the editorial integration they have previously done with Bloomberg Associated Groups. Seems like a conflict of interest and a way of laundering information in to legitamacy.

  13. Portland. Aug. 8. Folks were holding a prayer meeting and were attacked by antifa brown shirts. Men, women and children were attacked including with pepper spray. Typical nazi tactics, not even sparing children, to suppress freedom.

    Guess who attempted to fight the fascists? Proud Boys. Who’s the bad guys here?

    • jwm,

      Who are the “bad guys” in your example? The prayer meeting attendees and the Proud Boys (of course!) since those two groups were/are not members of the Progressive “tribe” (which includes ANTIFA).

      Why were those two groups the “bad guys”? Simple: because they did/do not support the Progressive vision of utopia, which makes them corrupt/evil sub-humans who deserve all the mistreatment, abuse, and punishment that they receive.

      All races of mankind have demonstrated this gigantic flaw countless times throughout history in spectacular fashion. Tribes of all stripes (African, European, Asian, Native American) who conquered other tribes would rape, pillage, and plunder the losers. Note that “plunder” often included taking the losers as slaves and keeping them for slave labor, sex slaves, or selling them to other tribes.

      Think about that for a long moment.

  14. “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” This may be a case where all three are present. But what can we expect from liberal groups like Everytown for Gun Safety and ‘researchers’ with the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project?

  15. Turned the other way.. 5 in 6 protests where guns were present did NOT turn violent.

    Including the January 2020 VCDL event, where 20,000 + were armed, and not a single shot was fired, and Richmond, VA was left cleaner. Oh, and the only person “arrested” was…. wearing a mask!

  16. So basically Everytown used their Bloomberg funding to produce a “special report” borrowing data from ACLED to prove their contention that all white republicans are evil gun toting violent extremists? Confirmation biased confirmed.

    I wonder whether they really have data to prove their contentions that: 1. BLM protestors were unarmed in so many demonstrations, 2. Portland Protests and take over of 6 city blocks should not be counted in their figures as repeated protests 3. Their gross mischaracterization and apologetic description of the street Antifa execution of Aaron Danielson.

    The inherent public problem is that there is no major funding for anyone to fact check the data or the claims and these assertions then become gospel in the news and public discourse. Now liberals will simply cite the evil white boogeyman as the caricature to which racist gun totting men must be disarmed.

    To Larry Keanne and others at the NRA, FPC, GOA: you should be paying a research party big bucks to go over this report with a fine tooth comb.

  17. “It harkens back to the context of white men not getting what they want and being violent,” Vinson said. “When people come to city centers or capitals and they do that, there’s a level of boldness that can be concerning to people who’ve been on the receiving end of violence from that same demographic.”
    Yeah, everyone is talking about all those violent white guys in all the major US cities. Chicago must be filled with violent white extremists for all that violence to happen.

    • “Chicago must be filled with violent white extremists for all that violence to happen.”

      Not exactly. The criminals act that way due to oppression from the white supremacists. I’m pretty sure climate change also contributes to the violence. It’s always more violent when the weather is warmer. If the entire country goes green, then we can keep the temperature from rising about an extra 1/8th of a degree in 80 years. Problem solved! You’re welcome.

      • Your simplistic view of climate warming is absurd and a Far Right propaganda to justify the continued rape of the environment for blind greed and profit. The amount of forests burning around the world including Russia, Europe , South American and the U.S. has put billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the air making climate warming all that much worse.

        The amount of man made pollutions of course is doing even more damage to the environment such as the the burning of coal and natural gas and auto pollution as well as the insatiable demand for more beef all have put the final nails into the coffin of the planet whose survival seems to be inevitably doomed by the Far Right blind greed and stupidity. And their bizarre behavior becomes more alarming by the day as now they are now guzzling horse medicine to ward off the covid virus and thereby poisoning and killing themselves while being afraid to take covid vaccines that have been taken by the hundreds of millions of people with almost no problems.

        The melting of the polar glaciers both north and south has put many South Sea Islands underwater and put many of Alaska’s former Eskimo villages under water as well. The U.S. Government is drawing up emergency plans on the prospect of the entire East Coast of the U.S. being completely drowned in the next few years.

        To make matters even far more worse than they otherwise would be greed monger far right South American leaders are chopping down the rain forest by the thousands of acres so as to sell the wood to the worlds industrialized countries and plant more crops to sell to China after Trumps fk’d up ignorant trade war that cut off American foodstuffs being exported to China. The same is going on in Canada as well as Romania and Poland that have the last large European forests which are being chopped up to make paper and other wood products.

        • How much pollution did you and your brown shirt boys in antifa release into the air burning and looting minority owned businesses during the recent ‘mostly peaceful’ protests?

          Are you vegan? Do you own a car?

        • Hemp shoes for dacian, a full blown vegan.
          No way does ANY state give this ass a DL so own a car?
          He never learned how to drive. Parents were hippies,
          with no skills so they became part of the welfare system.
          I’m sure we are paying for his internet under the indigent tax.
          This is the guy in the neighborhood is always on bicycle.
          It’s not because of fitness, his mental impairment forbids a DL.
          He’s basically the guy having a conversation with a tree.
          The one that says HI! and tries to get your dog to bite him.
          How many people have you sued dacian? You indigent POS.

        • I can sum it up:
          Russia, Europe, South America, the U.S, Alaska, South Sea, East Coast of the U.S, China, Canada, Romania, Poland, Eskimos, Covid and Trump.

        • I don’t go out too often, but when I do I run my car for ten minutes or so, do my errsnds then return home. I have used fossil fuels, like a half gsllon of gas, true. Now if I buy an electric car (phat chance)what are the amount of fossil fuels used to make it and more than twice used to transport it (because it’s three times heavier than normal car) and how much fossil fuel to generate electricity 24/7 in case I need to charge my car? The falacy of reduction in the use of fossil fuel is soooo exagerated to laugh at with your blinders on. Let’s not forget , too,all of the expensive mineral compounds needed for the batteries (found in places run by U.S. adversaries) and the expense of TRYING to dispose of the batteries. I don’t think the Green New Deal is such a “deal”.

  18. So based on their number in both cases they were mostly peaceful protests…
    So some mutual combat breaks out and the world is ending, but burn down half a city, including their police departments, causing billions in damages, and that is just fine. I get it now…
    The Maytag repairman worked overtime to spin this one.

    • Getting Joe Biden in, I mean protesting racism, was extremely important during the pandemic. Over 1,000 health professionals said so. Try believing in science and turning off Fox News for a change. I assume we got Joe in, I mean solved the racism problem since the burning, looting, and murd… I mean the burning and looting has calmed down.

  20. Yeah, I can still remember when those Proud Boys burned Ferguson, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles . . . the list goes on and on.

  21. I mean if you don’t classify Burn Loot Murder and Antifa as a protest but as domestic terrorism, then their protests are in fact less violent. But i doubt that was their method, they just stuck their head up their ass and lied by fabricating data.

  22. Yet another reminder of how much of the legacy media has turned into DNC propaganda. It is amusing that they actually think people will believe their crap. Look at CNN, if they didn’t pay airports etc to put their crap on where people have to see it they would loose at least half their audience.

  23. How you look does more PR damage than how you really are. If Joe is wearing a nice suit and maybe carrying a hand gun concealed people look at Joe as, initially, a guy in a nice suit and if Joe doesn’t act a fool then people will keep thinking that Joe is a guy in a nice suit that’s not causing any issues. But let Joe wear a tac-vest and/or body armour while carrying a black rifle with a 30 round magazine its to the public at large, initially and there after, someplace in the minds of the public at large a guy with a gun who might shoot someone so is someone “we” should be afraid of and that’s just what the anti-gun groups portray. Its not even hard for the anti-gun groups to simply play on whats already in the minds of people – those guys open carrying AR-15’s at protests/demonstrations etc.., dressed up in their body armour and tac vests were the best PR the anti-gun groups could have had and now that has become the picture of the typical gun owner.

  24. I’m getting if I say I love America I’m violent but if I try and burn it down its ” making a peaceful change ” ???

  26. Everytown study. Yeah, what other result would you expect from them. If there were any violence at “right-wing armed protests” it would be because some group that didn’t agree with the “protesters” started it. Black Lives (Don’t) Matter and ANTIFA protests were USUALLY violent. So this study is a piece of contrived SH*T.

  27. So who would you rather have a gun? A leftist loony? Or a right wing patriot?

  28. https://www.newsweek.com/america-white-supremacy-problem-risks-feeding-global-terror-1572186

    U.S.
    America’s White Supremacist Problem Risks Feeding Next Global Terrorism Wave
    BY TOM O’CONNOR AND NAVEED JAMALI ON 2/25/21 AT 5:24 PM EST
    01:03World Leaders Condemn Violence At Capitol Hill
    SHARE

    U.S.
    TERRORISM
    WHITE NATIONALISM

    The United States’ international “War on Terror” against extremism is in its 20th year, but experts and former officials warned Newsweek that it was the U.S. itself that may feed the next wave of global terrorism should hateful ideologies like white supremacy continue to flourish within its borders.

    Former CIA officer and FBI Special Agent Tracy Walder says groups and individuals brandishing dangerous far-right dogmas at home are infiltrating abroad.

    “They already have begun exporting their hate,” Walder told Newsweek.

    Walder, whose foreign intelligence work earned her a number of accolades, pointed to the international influence of groups such as the Proud Boys, a far-right, self-described “Western chauvinist” organization that closely aligned itself with former President Donald Trump and participated in last months’ deadly Capitol riots.

    • You and Newsweek (and nearly all Leftist) share the psychological trait of..

      …Projection….

      …which is a psychological defense mechanism in which individuals attribute characteristics they find unacceptable in themselves to another person.

      In these cases projection will result in false accusations.

      Like other defense mechanisms, projection is typically unconscious and can distort, transform, or somehow affect reality.

      Small ‘d’ dacian, seek medical/psychological help immediately.

  29. I might add the organizers of the assault on the Capitol were the Proud Boys a fanatical far right Nazi hate group who tried to overthrow the government and establish a Hitlerite Right Wing Dictatorship under a modern day Hitler, Herr Drumpf (original family name of “the Donald”). Groups like the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and KKK are the greatest danger to law abiding gun owners as their military style weapons being brandished on every News Media outlet have panicked the public who already fear the assault rifle because they have been used in so many mass shootings and with the added threat of these Neo Nazi hate groups it only fuels the fire for banning such weapons altogether.

    As I have stated many times the Far Right are their own worst enemies and have proven definitely to be the worst enemies of law abiding gun owners, democracy and the American People and their way of life.

      • quote—————Why would you mock a foreign name?———–qoute

        Your fantasy not mine. I simply pointed out that Trump was doing exactly what Hitler did and both happed to have Teutonic origins. I forgot to add Trump kept a copy of “Mein Kampf” by his bedside and his racist campaign for President followed Hitler’s political campaign so closely it was impossible not to miss.

      • dacian is a neo-nazi. But because of his mental illness he doesn’t think he is. It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic.

        • Pretty sure the Aryan Brotherhood wont have him, he just thinks he’s a Nazi but that change in a day or with a different psychiatric medication.

        • Jethro, Dan and the Burning Cross feel the need to prove to themselves that their tongues still work but have not figured out yet how to attach their tongues to their thimble size craniums. Human evolution is still in progress its just that some species will need another 1/2 million years to fully develop.

        • We know your tongue works dacian. But it has nothing to do with evolution. Take another million years to evolve. Then what? You’ve started with mental illness. Do you think time will cure you?

  32. No matter — the only people who read USA today are trapped in an airport waiting for a connecting flight. I doubt they pay much attention to it (if they are like me, they scan the headlines, look at the pictures, and throw it in the trash.)

  33. That explains Portland’s ear of riots, Seattle’s Chop/Chaz zone, all the looting in NYC, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Kenosha and every other big city last year. I’m glad they straightened that out. Which is worse, the “reporter” who wrote to advance their preferred narrative, or the sheeple who only pay attention enough to blindly believe such things, but don’t invest the mental energy to seek the truth?

  34. Considering that USA Today is nothing but bird cage liner, and the Everytown fools are nothing but useful idiots for the leftists, I should pay attention why?
    Burn, Loot, Murder, and Aunty Fascist have the tendency to attack anyone who might possibly be anything to the right of Joe Stalin, it is no surprise the “Study” makes the claim of violence. While the right wing groups may be involved, from actual news reports, it is the left that actually starts the violence. Otherwise most of their protests would be nothing but shouting/pissing contests. Of course, that would not get the left the news coverage they crave, so they throw a few punches and get something started. Then call the police or run for help and get the media to cover it.
    Makes for click bait on the propaganda arm of the DNC news sites and pushes their agenda into the front of the news cycle.

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