Each time we see an act of impunity, it only empowers individuals to react as if each encounter is deadly. I’m not trained to handle masked and armed men, screaming, swearing, and storming my vehicle. I only know that my options are to either allow these strange men to kidnap me or get shot. If it’s a death sentence, why leave control to them? Why shouldn’t I buy a firearm and start target practice? These masked men are cowards inside, externalizing their fear onto innocent civilians. It’s bullshit and one day it’ll happen to me or you or someone you know. Anyone of us will be dead and no notion of peace will fix it, while they are free to manipulate your murder into a convenient story that supports the fascist narrative. They are using fascism to enact violence. We’ve voiced our dissent, but it continues to fester and grow. We’ve seen history. We know what works.

If I thought I was going to die, my instinct would not be to whip out a pistol–it would be to get out of the way of the vehicle. In no world was this reaction justifiable, especially not by people in charge of serving and protecting. It’s bullshit that this will be spun and forgotten by Saturday. You’ll see MAGA celebrate like they did with Rittenhouse for the sane stupid things.