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Businesses Chafing Under Covid-19 Lockdowns Turn to Armed Defiance
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/us/coronavirus-businesses-lockdown-guns.html
SHEPHERD, Texas — When Jamie Williams decided to reopen her East Texas tattoo studio last week in defiance of the state’s coronavirus restrictions, she asked Philip Archibald for help. He showed up with his dog Zeus, his friends and his AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.
An armed protester provided support to the owner of a bar in Odessa, Texas, which reopened last week in defiance of an order that it remain shut.Credit...Eli Hartman/Odessa American, via Associated Press
Mr. Archibald established an armed perimeter in the parking lot outside Crash-N-Burn Tattoo, secured by five men with military-style rifles, tactical shotguns, camouflage vests and walkie-talkies. One of them already had a large tattoo of his own. “We the People,” it said.
“I think it should be a business’s right if they want to close or open,” said Mr. Archibald, a 29-year-old online fitness trainer from the Dallas area who lately has made it his personal mission to help Texas business owners challenge government orders to keep their doors shut during the coronavirus pandemic. “What is coming to arrest a person who is opening their business according to their constitutional rights? That’s confrontation.”
malls, restaurants and other businesses to reopen after a coronavirus lockdown, bars, salons, tattoo parlors and other enterprises where social distancing is more difficult were ordered to remain closed for a longer period.
In at least a half dozen cases around the state in recent days, frustrated small-business owners have turned to heavily armed, militia-style protesters like Mr. Archibald’s group to serve as reopening security squads.
The showy displays of local firepower are creating a dilemma for the authorities, who face public demands for enforcement of social distancing guidelines, but also strong pushback from conservatives in some parts of the state who are convinced that the restrictions go too far.
The broader political split came out into the open this week, when the Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, issued a warning to three Democratic-led cities — Austin, San Antonio and Dallas — that their local Covid-19 restrictions were illegal under the statewide reopening order issued by Governor Abbott, also a Republican.
pro-gun movements in an independent state where “Come and Take It” flags are commonplace and amateur warriors patrol the southern border with Mexico.
armed members of the Michigan Liberty Militia challenged Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home orders recently inside the State Capitol, and armed members of the Michigan Home Guard helped reopen a barbershop in the town of Owosso. But Texas appears to be turning such goings-on into a cottage industry.
Around the state, groups of rifle-carrying demonstrators have volunteered their services to small-business owners, and have taken to social media to urge people to defy the authorities where necessary and reopen with armed support.
In recent days, Mr. Archibald has also brought his firearms to the illicit reopenings of a handful of bars, gyms and other businesses around the state. Days before the reopening in Shepherd, Mr. Archibald helped organize a protest outside an illegally reopened bar in the West Texas city of Odessa. That one ended with the authorities rolling up in an armored vehicle and arresting several of Mr. Archibald’s armed friends, along with the bar owner.
defying the authorities and became a national icon to conservatives opposed to state lockdowns.
Following the confrontations in Odessa and Dallas, police officials and local leaders have found themselves in a bind, especially after the governor spoke out on behalf of the Dallas salon owner and helped get her released by easing the punishment for violating his remaining lockdown orders.
The Odessa American.
The armed protesters are a varied lot scattered around the state, some of them with long-established groups, others forming new ones or acting as lone operators. J.P. Campbell, 45, a military veteran with the group Freedom Fighters of Texas, met Mr. Archibald face to face for the first time only during last week’s action at Crash-N-Burn.
“It’s not for looks,” Mr. Campbell said as he stood guard with a shotgun draped across his chest. “We’re willing to die.”
The groups walk a thin line between civil disobedience and political street theater in a way that has caused a split within the anti-lockdown movement, some of whose proponents oppose such brazen challenges to the authorities.
Gun control supporters have their own concerns about such tactics.
“People are nervous enough as it is, and then to see people walking around with AR-15s in public places, gathered together like that, is unnerving and upsetting,” said Ed Scruggs, the board president of the group Texas Gun Sense. “The entire goal is intimidation and attention.”
Friday’s reopening at Crash-N-Burn in the town of Shepherd unfolded quietly, except for Zeus. In the span of a few hours, the shop had 10 tattoo and piercing customers.
Some of the protesters say they are merely engaging in marketing — drawing attention to businesses so that their reopening attracts more customers — while others say they are part of a grass-roots rebellion against oppressive government.
“We go out there because we want peace, but we prepare for war,” said C.J. Grisham, 46, a retired Army sergeant whose gun rights group Open Carry Texas helped the arrested owner of the bar in Odessa get a lawyer. “I hope this never happens, but at some point guns are going to have to cease to be a show of force and be a response to force,” he said.
Law enforcement officers arrested protesters outside of a bar in Odessa, Texas. The official who led the raid, Mike Griffis, the Ector County sheriff, has received numerous threats.Credit...Eli Hartman/Odessa American, via Associated Press
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/us/coronavirus-businesses-lockdown-guns.html
SHEPHERD, Texas — When Jamie Williams decided to reopen her East Texas tattoo studio last week in defiance of the state’s coronavirus restrictions, she asked Philip Archibald for help. He showed up with his dog Zeus, his friends and his AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.
An armed protester provided support to the owner of a bar in Odessa, Texas, which reopened last week in defiance of an order that it remain shut.Credit...Eli Hartman/Odessa American, via Associated Press
Mr. Archibald established an armed perimeter in the parking lot outside Crash-N-Burn Tattoo, secured by five men with military-style rifles, tactical shotguns, camouflage vests and walkie-talkies. One of them already had a large tattoo of his own. “We the People,” it said.
“I think it should be a business’s right if they want to close or open,” said Mr. Archibald, a 29-year-old online fitness trainer from the Dallas area who lately has made it his personal mission to help Texas business owners challenge government orders to keep their doors shut during the coronavirus pandemic. “What is coming to arrest a person who is opening their business according to their constitutional rights? That’s confrontation.”
malls, restaurants and other businesses to reopen after a coronavirus lockdown, bars, salons, tattoo parlors and other enterprises where social distancing is more difficult were ordered to remain closed for a longer period.
In at least a half dozen cases around the state in recent days, frustrated small-business owners have turned to heavily armed, militia-style protesters like Mr. Archibald’s group to serve as reopening security squads.
The showy displays of local firepower are creating a dilemma for the authorities, who face public demands for enforcement of social distancing guidelines, but also strong pushback from conservatives in some parts of the state who are convinced that the restrictions go too far.
The broader political split came out into the open this week, when the Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, issued a warning to three Democratic-led cities — Austin, San Antonio and Dallas — that their local Covid-19 restrictions were illegal under the statewide reopening order issued by Governor Abbott, also a Republican.
pro-gun movements in an independent state where “Come and Take It” flags are commonplace and amateur warriors patrol the southern border with Mexico.
armed members of the Michigan Liberty Militia challenged Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home orders recently inside the State Capitol, and armed members of the Michigan Home Guard helped reopen a barbershop in the town of Owosso. But Texas appears to be turning such goings-on into a cottage industry.
Around the state, groups of rifle-carrying demonstrators have volunteered their services to small-business owners, and have taken to social media to urge people to defy the authorities where necessary and reopen with armed support.
In recent days, Mr. Archibald has also brought his firearms to the illicit reopenings of a handful of bars, gyms and other businesses around the state. Days before the reopening in Shepherd, Mr. Archibald helped organize a protest outside an illegally reopened bar in the West Texas city of Odessa. That one ended with the authorities rolling up in an armored vehicle and arresting several of Mr. Archibald’s armed friends, along with the bar owner.
defying the authorities and became a national icon to conservatives opposed to state lockdowns.
Following the confrontations in Odessa and Dallas, police officials and local leaders have found themselves in a bind, especially after the governor spoke out on behalf of the Dallas salon owner and helped get her released by easing the punishment for violating his remaining lockdown orders.
The Odessa American.
The armed protesters are a varied lot scattered around the state, some of them with long-established groups, others forming new ones or acting as lone operators. J.P. Campbell, 45, a military veteran with the group Freedom Fighters of Texas, met Mr. Archibald face to face for the first time only during last week’s action at Crash-N-Burn.
“It’s not for looks,” Mr. Campbell said as he stood guard with a shotgun draped across his chest. “We’re willing to die.”
The groups walk a thin line between civil disobedience and political street theater in a way that has caused a split within the anti-lockdown movement, some of whose proponents oppose such brazen challenges to the authorities.
Gun control supporters have their own concerns about such tactics.
“People are nervous enough as it is, and then to see people walking around with AR-15s in public places, gathered together like that, is unnerving and upsetting,” said Ed Scruggs, the board president of the group Texas Gun Sense. “The entire goal is intimidation and attention.”
Friday’s reopening at Crash-N-Burn in the town of Shepherd unfolded quietly, except for Zeus. In the span of a few hours, the shop had 10 tattoo and piercing customers.
Some of the protesters say they are merely engaging in marketing — drawing attention to businesses so that their reopening attracts more customers — while others say they are part of a grass-roots rebellion against oppressive government.
“We go out there because we want peace, but we prepare for war,” said C.J. Grisham, 46, a retired Army sergeant whose gun rights group Open Carry Texas helped the arrested owner of the bar in Odessa get a lawyer. “I hope this never happens, but at some point guns are going to have to cease to be a show of force and be a response to force,” he said.
Law enforcement officers arrested protesters outside of a bar in Odessa, Texas. The official who led the raid, Mike Griffis, the Ector County sheriff, has received numerous threats.Credit...Eli Hartman/Odessa American, via Associated Press
