The Rise Of Armed Groups On The Far Left

      One of the first rules of creating a subversive group is that you actually need multiple groups: you need foundations and charities to raise, move and redistribute money; you need the political groups that are the face of the movement; you need other foundations or organizations to act as "neutral third parties" to promote your movement and feed members into other academia and government; and so on. And you need yet other groups to do the dirty work--the violence, intimidation, and so on--without it being able to be linked to the "clean" political party, foundations, charities, trusts, etc.

     The violent groups will come and go depending on their usefulness. At one time, the KKK did a lot of dirty work for the Democratic party. But once Blacks were solidly Democrat, the KKK was abandoned and left to whither and die. Today, we see groups such as Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and the John Brown Gun Club that exist for the purpose of violence and intimidation, or the security of the groups that intimidate the public. And the propaganda is rolling out to convince those on the Left that such groups, and the tactics they use, are necessary to the progressive movement.

    For instance, last month, The New Republic ran an article entitled, "Antifa Is Arming Itself Against a Trump Crackdown," arguing that violent rhetoric from the left, or even civil unrest in the event of a contested presidential election in 2020, justifies preparing to take up arms. After reciting some scary stories of "right wing" groups threatening violence, the article explains:

     Stories such as these have inspired a predictable response. The Puget Sound JBGC [John Brown Gun Club] was founded after Aaron spotted hate graffiti in the park where his child plays. “People have some real fear about what the future holds for them, and some real fear about what lurks down the street,” he said. There is some talk of what would happen when Donald Trump or a more competent authoritarian successor bombs urban centers of resistance, like Seattle, but for the most part, these “community defense” groups are less concerned with doomsday scenarios than they are with immediate threats against mosques, synagogues, abortion clinics, and the like.

     Unsurprisingly, perhaps, most of their current members are white and male. Many are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A third of the Socialist Rifle Association’s 2,000 members identify as LGBTQ, and 8 percent are transgender. “We’ve got liberal folks, politicians and people in the media, saying, ‘the government is becoming a fascist regime,’ and then turning around and saying, ‘You can’t have your guns, we can only have guns in the hands of people we’re calling fascists,’” said Alex Tackett, the SRA’s 22-year-old president. 


      Of course, for pragmatic as well as public relations purposes, most of these groups insist that they merely want to promote gun safety. The Puget Sound JBGC vigorously rejects the term “militia,” noting that its members are instead merely seeking social justice. “Any police officer who wants to infiltrate us, best of luck; we’re incredibly boring, and everything we do is completely legal,” Aaron said. 


Almost simultaneously, Vox ran an an article with the title, "I’m a left-wing anarchist. Guns aren’t just for right-wingers," by Kim Kelly. He writes:

      Right-wingers have held an unearned monopoly on gun culture for too long. Whether it’s in the halls of legislative power or in the comments under “gun bunny” photos on Instagram, there is a prevailing narrative that pegs guns and armed self-defense exclusively to Republicans, racist libertarians, and other generally Constitution-obsessed weirdos. It maintains that those on the left want to take away everyone’s guns and swathe the entire country in bubble wrap. But I’m an anarchist, and I call bullshit.

      I’m of the firm opinion that it’s time to not only arm the left but challenge the narrative that all leftists are anti-gun. Many are, and that’s a position I can understand and respect. But there is also a long history of armed community self-defense among the radical left that is often glossed over or forgotten entirely in favor of the Fox News-friendly narrative that all liberals hate guns. That’s simply not the case — though as history has proven, the only thing that scares the reactionary right more than the idea of losing their guns is the thought of us having them.

The rest of the article is about how those in power have traditionally tried to disarm marginalized communities (the author's words) including people of color, and arguing that such communities cannot rely on the police for protection. It's a difficult argument for the author, because he also must not undermine Leftist arguments for gun control.

    Notwithstanding the foregoing, it is easy to see the separation of duties between the groups. Ammo Land, for instance, describes the background of some of the armed Leftist groups:

      The John Brown Gun Club's first armed protest was against the Minute Man Project in 2005. The Minute Man Project goal was to secure the U.S. border with Mexico. In 2009 Red Neck Revolt formed as an offshoot of the John Brown Gun Club to counter the rise of the Tea Party movement.

     After being dormant for several years the groups reorganized in the of 2016 in response to the campaign of then-candidate Donald Trump for President. They have held several protests while open carrying AR-15s and AKM rifles.

     One thing that separates these groups from Antifa is even though these groups are heavily armed; they do not resort to violence. The JBGC has also had a sit down with a Three Percent group where they asserted even though their ideas are aligned with Antifa that they would only use force in self-defense.

     The Huey Percy Newton Gun Club (HPNGC) is another Antifa allied armed group. The group takes its name from Huey P. Newton. Newton was a co-founder of the Black Panthers in the 1960s. The group was founded in Dallas, Texas in 2013.

     The HPNGC insist they are not and never have been a part of The Black Panther Party. The group shares a lot of Antifa's political beliefs and have been a part of Antifa protest, but they have not resorted to violence. The communist group wants to spread awareness of the First and Second Amendment throughout the inner city. Their support for the First Amendment is directly at odds with the beliefs of Antifa.

     The Socialist Rifle Association (S.R.A.) is another group listed in a lot of the articles. S.R.A. is an anti-capitalist group but also is not an Antifa group. The S.R.A. goal is to spread the power of the Second Amendment to those on the left that might otherwise be scared off by right-wing groups.

     A lot of articles list the Liberal Gun Club as an Antifa group. The group is not an Antifa group at all. The group is a non-profit that teaches left of center Americans about gun rights and safe gun handling. The group does not attend protests and does not share most of Antifa's ideology.

(See also an article from ABC (AU) entitled, "Antifa: The hard left's call to arms"). But there is no evidence that Antifa, as part of its policy, is arming itself with firearms. And that makes sense because that group's purpose is to be violent protesters that throw things and beat people while the police stand back and watch.

    So far, the groups armed with firearms seem to only be providing security or protection for other liberal groups that are marching or protesting. For example, the article, "‘If others have rifles, we’ll have rifles’: why US leftist groups are taking up arms," from the Guardian discusses a John Brown Gun Club chapter in Seattle, the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club (PSJBGC), and the role they have had in providing "security" at various left wing activities:

       The people in the van are members of the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club (PSJBGC). Their stated aim is to fight white supremacy and build community defense in America’s Pacific north-west, and their presence has become a fixture of protests in the Seattle and Tacoma areas, where the group is often invited to provide security against rightwing aggression.

      The night before, several of them had been called to a library in nearby Renton, Washington, where a Drag Story Time Hour, an event series in which a local drag queen or drag king reads to children in a library or bookstore, was being disrupted by rightwing protesters. The protesters, who opposed the event as “immoral”, held up signs equating drag with pedophilia, and screamed “Shame! Shame!” at parents and their kids. Among them were members of the Proud Boys, a violent rightwing street gang, and Three Percenters militia, who were open-carrying firearms.

       The north-west has been at the center of tense political clashes over the last two years. The area is an adopted home base for far-right groups like Patriot Prayer, Identity Evropa/American Identity Movement and the Proud Boys, who have organized numerous marches that have ended in violence. In response, a range of leftist groups have organized self defence groups and, in doing so, present gun ownership as a way to protect themselves and others.

      Now, the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club was en route to Seattle’s Trans Pride March.

      In the weeks prior, word spread that a number of white supremacist groups had planned to disrupt the celebration. Hearing this, the club reached out to the organizers of the event, the Gender Justice League, and offered to assist with security or to provide escorts.

      Brooke Wylie, the head of security for the Gender Justice League in charge of overseeing the 101-person security detail for the event, did some research on the club. She told them the event had a policy of having no open carry (that is, no visible weapon), which they were fine with. She accepted their offer. Police were also present, but many marginalized groups do not trust them to provide protection at public events, especially when far-right groups are involved.

      Each member showed up with a concealed handgun. “We do our actions proportional to the threat, so when other people are out with rifles, we’ll be out with rifles,” Nick, the group’s de facto spokesperson, explained. “In this case, we don’t want to appear threatening for the people that we’re trying to protect and support; we want this to be a happy atmosphere, especially for a population that may have faced gun violence on the street just for being who they are.” 

While there are many that poo-poo the training and efforts of these leftist gun groups, others have correctly pointed out that at least these groups are getting out there to practice together, build camaraderie, and work out the bugs in their system:

We should learn a few lessons from them and start networking and planning defense strategies to protect our families, neighborhoods, and such should these people decide to get rowdy. We should start training as a group with standards and work to bring everyone up to those standards.

     The Guardian article doesn't discuss too much about how the Puget Sound group works together, but there are hints from the photographs and captions. One of the big issues when working in a group is being able to distinguish your members from other people. The photographs show three primary means for doing this: some people sported a Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club t-shirt with logo; some people sported a cap with a patch of an AR over a pride flag with the logo "Defend Equality"; and all the members had bright pink tape around a visible portion of a backpack strap, clothing and/or their arm. In addition, although the number of members at the pride parade wasn't mentioned, they probably knew each other well enough to visually recognize one another.

     A couple other things to learn from the article concerning the group's operations. The article indicated that the group used radios to communicate. It would be worthwhile learning what types of radios were used, what channel or frequency, and so. If unencrypted, it might be possible to listen in on their communications. Finally, it is obvious the group is careful about infiltrators: "the group has a several-month long vetting process and probationary period for prospective recruits."