Trump and his GOP allies have tried for two years to cover up the horror of January 6.

"Peaceful patriots," they say.

"No guns," they say.

These are lies.

Now, yet more evidence shows that many Trump extremists were armed and dangerous that day motherjones.com/politics/2023/… 🧵 Many brought guns or other weapons. In the area of Trump's speech, the Secret Service confiscated "269 knives or blades, 242 canisters of pepper spray, 18 brass knuckles, 18 tasers, 6 pieces of body armor, 3 gas masks, 30 batons or blunt instruments" motherjones.com/politics/2023/… 2/x

This is jaw-dropping and should be a much, much bigger story. How DHS had specific, highly alarming intel well in advance but failed to sound the alarm about January 6 news.yahoo.com/exclusive-an-i… “On the morning of January 6th, 2021,” the DHS analyst wrote, “I made one more phone call begging for us to be given the intelligence reporting that we needed desperately which could have been used to inform those on the ground of the full kinetic threat"

Ever since Sandy Hook, experts have learned a lot more about how to intervene with disturbed and suicidal young men — before they get their hands on AR-15s and body armor. Threat assessment, red flag laws, higher age limits for guns. motherjones.com/crime-justice/… #SandyHook10YearsLater 2/ This pattern with assault rifles and tactical gear used in the grim spate of mass shootings in 2022 is telling. It's an escalation of a trend over the past decade. motherjones.com/crime-justice/… #SandyHook10YearsLater

Regarding the awful attack on Paul Pelosi: it's important not to get ahead of verified facts. We know little yet about the suspect's circumstances & motive. That said, it's worth highlighting again more broadly the dangers of #StochasticTerrorism that I’ve long written about. 1/x We’re in an era in which the Trump-dominated GOP has more openly accepted—and participated in—dangerous political incitement. It will cause further bloodshed. And let's be clear: There is little if any equivalent behavior from the Democratic Party. motherjones.com/politics/2022/… 2/x

THREAD: Trump is continuing to spew rhetoric that could easily incite more bloodshed motherjones.com/politics/2022/… #MassShootings #StochasticTerrorism 2/ I know many are sick of this and just want to tune him out, but many millions of Americans still back Trump—including partisan extremists who think political violence is justified. What happens when “armed citizens” patrol polling places on November 8? motherjones.com/politics/2022/…

NEW: Trump's ongoing incitement is feeding into a growing appetite for political violence in America, new research shows motherjones.com/politics/2022/… #January6th #StochasticTerrorism "12 percent of 'strong' Republicans indicated support for violence to 'return Trump to the presidency this year,' and 17 percent indicated the same to 'stop an election from being stolen.' They were also more likely to agree that 'armed citizens should patrol polling places'" 2/x

NEW: Trump continues to escalate his dangerous incitement. My latest reporting on this disturbing pattern of behavior from the ex-president motherjones.com/politics/2022/… 1/x Trump declares on Fox News that a top elected law enforcement official really “hates” America. At a rally, he calls the FBI “vicious monsters”—knowing a Truth Social user tried to attack FBI agents with an AR-15.

Ask yourself: What is he trying to do? motherjones.com/politics/2022/… 2/x

NEW: Trump has spread incitement of violence throughout the GOP. Here's my latest reporting on the growing danger from one of the ex-president’s darkest legacies motherjones.com/politics/2022/… #StochasticTerrorism The temperature has risen ever since Trump and his allies went ballistic over the seizure of highly classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, with various GOP figures helping fuel the fire. Violence experts told me they’re deeply worried about the incitement motherjones.com/politics/2022/… 2/x

It seems clear here that Dan Crenshaw does not actually understand what a ‘red flag’ law is. It’s not a criminal procedure—it’s a civil one. A judge determines whether to remove a gun temporarily from a person based on evidence that person poses a danger to himself and/or others

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1530911454538477570

Shouldn’t a member of Congress first actually understand what a law is before taking a stand against it? @DanCrenshawTX

NEW: What are the warning signs of a potential mass shooter?

In this @WSJ essay adapted from my new book TRIGGER POINTS, I detail eight areas that prevention experts use to assess troubled people who may be turning dangerous wsj.com/articles/how-w… 🧵 1/x Rage targeting women is a growing factor in mass shootings, as I further document in TRIGGER POINTS. Domestic abuse, "incel" ideology and other violent misogyny and extremism are rising concerns for threat assessment experts. [🎙️: Mark Deakins] 2/x

A growing method today for preventing mass shootings traces back in part to shocking violence by anti-abortion extremists and a little-known attack on a US Supreme Court justice. I reveal that story for the first time in my new book, TRIGGER POINTS harpercollins.com/products/trigg… 🧵 1/x Supreme Court justice Harry Blackmun—who authored the 1973 opinion in #RoeVWade legalizing abortion—was targeted by violent extremists his whole career. On a quiet night in 1985, a bullet smashed through his living room window. Its impact would be fateful. [🎙️: Mark Deakins] 2/x

“School shootings season.”

That’s what some threat assessment experts call this time of year, as I detail in TRIGGER POINTS. The heightened danger is fueled by the "copycat" effect—and #Columbine, 23 years ago today, remains a big part of the problem harpercollins.com/products/trigg… 1/x The extent of it is sobering: I documented more than 100 Columbine-inspired plots and attacks in the US in the two decades since the massacre.

“I’m thinking about doing my school the same way,” said one teen who planned an attack for April 20. “Everybody will know my name.” 2/x

BOOK NEWS: My debut, TRIGGER POINTS, is out today. It’s the first ever to go inside specialized teams of experts who are preventing mass shootings, from K-12 schools to the FBI. Here’s a 🧵 about what you’ll find in the book hc.com/TriggerPoints 1/x My work behind Trigger Points spans nearly a decade. I first began to dive deep into the field of behavioral threat assessment, whose core mission is to prevent mass shootings and other targeted violence, in a rather surreal setting: Disneyland. (🎙️: Mark Deakins) 2/x

NEW: Chilling details continue to emerge in court documents about Oath Keepers' alleged violent plot around January 6. These guys had a lot of guns, and they were ready to use them in support of Donald Trump motherjones.com/crime-justice/… 2/ According to court documents, Oath Keepers spoke of having "inside information" for January 6 and called it “a do or die situation,” suggesting that a failure by Congress to throw the election to Trump could lead to “the declaration of a guerrilla war" motherjones.com/crime-justice/…

NEW: A top gun-violence expert warns that America's surging gun sales and rising political extremism could spell "disaster in the months ahead" motherjones.com/crime-justice/… 2/ "If that still sounds like unrealistic pessimism, consider what will happen next year when armed voter suppression (surely that’s coming) meets armed voter support," writes Garen Wintemute...

Chilling footage from our investigation of armed Trump extremists on January 6. One charged for carrying a gun at the Capitol demands overthrow of the government. Another urges the mob to kill a police officer: “Shoot him! Either you let us in or you die!” 2/ Read our full investigation: the Oath Keepers' alleged plot stockpiling an "arsenal" of guns near downtown DC, the armed Texas man who said it was his "constitutional right to carry a weapon and take over the Congress," and more motherjones.com/crime-justice/…

NEWS: More evidence of an **armed insurrection** at the US Capitol, as new details on Trump extremists who brought guns continue to emerge in January 6 cases motherjones.com/crime-justice/… Our latest reporting on this story, from me and @dfriedman33 2/ “According to court documents, federal agents who searched Brown’s home in late September found a short-barreled semiautomatic rifle and a sawed-off shotgun—both unregistered in violation of federal law—as well as two ‘military ordinance’ grenades.” motherjones.com/crime-justice/…

NEWS: Trump extremists brought numerous guns to the Capitol on January 6. See all the evidence in our latest @MotherJones investigation of the insurrection motherjones.com/crime-justice/… 2/ As our new investigation shows, during the Capitol insurrection Trump extremists carried concealed pistols, allegedly stockpiled weapons nearby, and called for overthrowing the US government

This is the second big conspiracy case to be unsealed in the sprawling FBI investigation of January 6. All signs suggest there will be more to come. This one is notable for alleged coordination between a pro-Trump political group and members of a militia group, Three Percenters

https://twitter.com/DavidCornDC/status/1403092026648846340

For all the Republican leaders who insist January 6 was “not an insurrection,” also notable from today’s unsealed indictment: One of the charged co-conspirators disagrees with you. “Insurrection!” he declared triumphantly in a text message, according to prosecutors

“Sex addiction” may be the Atlanta mass shooter’s preferred narrative, but the real story on that count is toxic masculinity. Motive in mass shootings is often complex. But given the victims he targeted, his attack was inherently both racist AND misogynist motherjones.com/crime-justice/… Evangelical doctrine, sex addition, "purity culture"—it's baffling that coverage of the Atlanta mass shooter keeps focusing so heavily on all this. (And as if the guy had no agency!) The much bigger story: He targeted Asian women. He bought a gun same day. washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/…

you might even say that Trumpism is terrorism wral.com/odni-releases-… In fact, veteran national security experts do say this. The January 6 assault on Congress was part of an ongoing story, not an ending. With GOP acolytes continuing to push Trump's Big Lie, there will be more of this. Not if, but when. #StochasticTerrorism motherjones.com/politics/2021/…