Marcus Wynne: "When Training Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Be Training"

Marcus Wynne, in his article, takes note of a proposed Virginia bill that could be interpreted as outlawing tactical training. And by "could be interpreted," I mean that a prosecutor or court, if they wanted to, could stretch the language to cover much of the tactical or defensive training currently available to the public. This is why we occasionally hear people like Max Velocity, John Mosby of Mountain Guerrilla, and others suggest to newbies to get their firearms/tactical training now, while they can, and seek the bare-hands training later.

     Herschel Smith of The Captain's Journal has the full text of the bill, which purports to outlaw paramilitary activity, but here is an example of one of its provisions making a person guilty of a felony if he "[t]eaches or demonstrates to any other person the use, [or] application ... of any firearm ... or technique capable of causing injury or death to persons, knowing or having reason to know or intending that such training will be employed for use in, or in furtherance of, a civil disorder[.]"

    Ostensibly, this bill is probably to prevent violent groups like Antifa from holding "self defense" classes to better prepare their members to engage in violent protest. For instance, the cited Buzzfeed article relates:

     To protect those battling it out in the streets, many antifa groups train members in street medicine. Those medics monitor the crowds, handing out water and sunscreen and acting as first responders if police bring out tear gas or a confrontation gets heated. The medics typically come from nursing or emergency medicine backgrounds, but many are laypeople trained by other street medics before them.

      But many antifa who spoke to BuzzFeed News said medical training alone won’t protect them during confrontations. During the street fights that broke out in Berkeley between antifa and white supremacists earlier this year, Sean Hines realized that his side wasn’t ready for that kind of confrontation with the right. “To be quite frank, they kicked our ass in a lot of instances … it was kind of an eye-opener that we really needed to start training,” Hines said.

      He created a fight club in Santa Rosa, California, to teach combat training to like-minded antifa. “Antifa had strength in numbers, but when it came to symmetrical combat, we would usually lose,” he said.

     Hines also founded an anarchist and socialist gun club, integrating guns into antifa self-defense to arm working-class people and create a “left-wing militia.” He’s not alone — several antifa groups are taking advantage of lax gun laws in their states and arming their members.

     “The more people that are armed, the more that we have the ability to fight police terrorism or fight fascist terrorism,” said Joseph Jordan, an anarchist who participates in Seattle antifa groups. “When the fuckers see that we are willing to shoot back, they back the fuck off.”

And beyond Antifa we have groups such as the various chapters of the John Brown Gun Club, the Pink Pistols (an LGBTQ group), Liberal Gun Club, and Socialist Rifle Association.

    But if this bill were to become law, would it be enforced against Antifa and similar leftist organizations? Probably not. As the Washington Free Beacon reported earlier this month, "All four Virginia prosecutor candidates backed [by] liberal billionaire George Soros emerged victorious in Tuesday’s elections." Prosecutors have discretion on whether to file or pursue charges against criminals, and so they can be selective in how to enforce a law.

    But back to Wynn's article. First of all, he provides a very good history of the development of tactical training courses for both the three-letter agencies and the general public, so we know where the community has been. The article is well worth reading just to learn the history. Beyond that, Wynn discusses a couple ways that this proposed law posses a threat: first, by setting a precedent that it is okay to ban classes or instruction in using firearms; and, second, by catching up instructors, despite their best efforts to vet class members, into investigations and perhaps even being charged when a student, perhaps years later, goes bad. And he gives a real world example of such an incident.

    In any event, the risks involved could be enough to drive instructors (at least the good ones) from providing training to the public and only offering it to law enforcement and/or military.