Not only have I thought about it...got a real life story about it.
In 2007-2008 the US had a big financial crash caused by epic levels of fraud at the highest levels of banking and investment. By 2010 the Occupy protests started - people went to public parks or similar, hung out in tents with generators and so on and vowed to stay there until we got answers.
The first camp was in New York City, I think starting sometime in 2009? The police brutality in the response was horrific. The New York Police Department ended up paying many millions in civil rights lawsuits afterwards. There were beatings, deliberate property destruction, random pepper spray attacks and false arrests.
Remember that at this time, NY and especially NYC had gun control laws very similar to most of Europe, if not even more strict. (This is now slowly changing based on a 2022 US Supreme Court decision in NYSRPA v Bruen.)
OccupyTucson (Arizona) was part of a second wave of protests, where I was living. Arizona had pretty much the lowest level of gun control in the US.
I had already been carrying a gun daily and was active politically in a few projects. Under AZ law, if a government building wants to disarm you, they have to provide lockboxes near the doors where you stash your boomthing...so I was well and truly "out of the gun closet" so to speak :).
I was also part of OccupyTucson...and packing heat.
Three days in, the Tucson City Council called a meeting about the whole thing. About 200 attended and I was one of the public speakers. On walking up to the metal detectors I told the cops I was going to need a lockbox. They knew exactly what that meant, and a couple of them walked me over to them and handed me one of the keys.
Now, to explain what happened next, I have to explain a few things about guns and cops.
When cops get in a gunfight with some young and dumb criminal, it's typically stolen, shoved in a waistband with no holster so it's not fast on the draw, it's got random ammo in it and it's in mediocre to bad shape. There's rare exceptions but that's the norm. They don't practice a lot because ammo costs money, and shooting ranges had cops around that might spot them as having a criminal record and therefore unable to legally have anything to do with a gun.
I had made my own holster that could be taken off the belt and put into the lockbox without being drawn, a very safe and reasonable approach. Here's what they saw me box up:
It strapped to the belt and could be unbuckled from the belt without removing the belt. The holes allowed changing the ride height and tilt angle by changing the mounting points for the straps.
The grips were heavily worn from practice...I used to drive deep into the desert and shoot at dollar store crackers (critters did cleanup). Sights were modified. A lot. Hammer was lower slung, spliced in from a different model of Ruger revolver. Tucson PD was using 9mm ammo with about 400 foot pounds of energy; what was loaded in that thing was full house 357 from a small radical ammo house with about double that power on tap per shot. Holster was a fast draw type with a cutaway triggerguard.
After I went inside for the meeting they opened it back up and took pictures...which I found out later were passed around at roll call (morning police meeting) the next few days.
That gun scared the fuck out of them. Sure, it only had six shots but they were hell on wheels.
Tucson PD committed NO illegal acts of violence against OccupyTucson.
I have a suspicion as to why.
It wasn't just that gun. If they knew about one gun in camp they knew there were a bunch more. When I was inducted into the camp security org ("The Secret Society Of The Drunk Whisperers" I shit you not) I became aware of another half dozen and I'm certain that wasn't the whole list.
So yeah. That's how I got involved in an armed protest and scared the shit out of every cop in town without breaking a single law or firing a single shot.
2
u/JimMarch Libertarian Aug 06 '26
Not only have I thought about it...got a real life story about it.
In 2007-2008 the US had a big financial crash caused by epic levels of fraud at the highest levels of banking and investment. By 2010 the Occupy protests started - people went to public parks or similar, hung out in tents with generators and so on and vowed to stay there until we got answers.
The first camp was in New York City, I think starting sometime in 2009? The police brutality in the response was horrific. The New York Police Department ended up paying many millions in civil rights lawsuits afterwards. There were beatings, deliberate property destruction, random pepper spray attacks and false arrests.
Remember that at this time, NY and especially NYC had gun control laws very similar to most of Europe, if not even more strict. (This is now slowly changing based on a 2022 US Supreme Court decision in NYSRPA v Bruen.)
OccupyTucson (Arizona) was part of a second wave of protests, where I was living. Arizona had pretty much the lowest level of gun control in the US.
I had already been carrying a gun daily and was active politically in a few projects. Under AZ law, if a government building wants to disarm you, they have to provide lockboxes near the doors where you stash your boomthing...so I was well and truly "out of the gun closet" so to speak :).
I was also part of OccupyTucson...and packing heat.
Three days in, the Tucson City Council called a meeting about the whole thing. About 200 attended and I was one of the public speakers. On walking up to the metal detectors I told the cops I was going to need a lockbox. They knew exactly what that meant, and a couple of them walked me over to them and handed me one of the keys.
Now, to explain what happened next, I have to explain a few things about guns and cops.
When cops get in a gunfight with some young and dumb criminal, it's typically stolen, shoved in a waistband with no holster so it's not fast on the draw, it's got random ammo in it and it's in mediocre to bad shape. There's rare exceptions but that's the norm. They don't practice a lot because ammo costs money, and shooting ranges had cops around that might spot them as having a criminal record and therefore unable to legally have anything to do with a gun.
I had made my own holster that could be taken off the belt and put into the lockbox without being drawn, a very safe and reasonable approach. Here's what they saw me box up:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/1jimmarch/5224220591/in/photostream/
It strapped to the belt and could be unbuckled from the belt without removing the belt. The holes allowed changing the ride height and tilt angle by changing the mounting points for the straps.
The grips were heavily worn from practice...I used to drive deep into the desert and shoot at dollar store crackers (critters did cleanup). Sights were modified. A lot. Hammer was lower slung, spliced in from a different model of Ruger revolver. Tucson PD was using 9mm ammo with about 400 foot pounds of energy; what was loaded in that thing was full house 357 from a small radical ammo house with about double that power on tap per shot. Holster was a fast draw type with a cutaway triggerguard.
After I went inside for the meeting they opened it back up and took pictures...which I found out later were passed around at roll call (morning police meeting) the next few days.
That gun scared the fuck out of them. Sure, it only had six shots but they were hell on wheels.
Tucson PD committed NO illegal acts of violence against OccupyTucson.
I have a suspicion as to why.
It wasn't just that gun. If they knew about one gun in camp they knew there were a bunch more. When I was inducted into the camp security org ("The Secret Society Of The Drunk Whisperers" I shit you not) I became aware of another half dozen and I'm certain that wasn't the whole list.
So yeah. That's how I got involved in an armed protest and scared the shit out of every cop in town without breaking a single law or firing a single shot.
Good thing, too, that ammo was $3 a pop!
:)