The Jan. 6 Capitol attack was an armed insurrection. Here’s why we have to say so

A great Californian once said that “the first casualty when war comes is the truth,” and the war on American democracy certainly bears that out. A weapon of choice in the continuing assault on our accurate memory of the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol is to assert an absence of weaponry.

It’s a counterintuitive point of propaganda about a melee linked to several deaths and scores of wounded law enforcement officers, particularly in a country with no shortage of people shot by police while armed with nothing but, say, a phone. And yet it’s not difficult to find this falsehood among far-right commentators and those who faithfully parrot them, up to and including riot ringleader and former President Donald Trump.

All of which would certainly surprise not only the officers beaten, maimed and traumatized by the attack but also the federal prosecutors who have filed weapons charges against more than 80 of the rioters. Given the dearth of arrests on the day of the attack and the burden of proof facing law enforcement, this is obviously only a sample of the arms borne.

Since we live in the age of misinformation, however, it’s worth going beyond that sufficiently disturbing statistic to catalog the weapons carried to, brandished at and used on the grounds of the Capitol that day. According to court documents, news reports and images of the attack, they included:

▪ At least a dozen firearms and several high-capacity magazines containing hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

▪ Several tasers and stun guns, among them a “Hike n’ Strike” walking stick capable of delivering a 950,000-volt shock and the one a Southern California defendant, Daniel Rodriguez, allegedly used against a Washington, D.C., police officer who suffered a heart attack.

▪ Makeshift explosives, including a firecracker and 11 mason jars filled with flammable liquid accompanied by lighters and rags.

▪ Knives, axes and “several machetes.”

▪ Bear spray, pepper spray and other unidentified irritant sprays — used liberally enough to create a “chemical fog,” according to a lawsuit filed by Capitol Police officers against Trump and others.

▪ Fire extinguishers, also used to spray and bludgeon police officers.

▪ Batons, clubs, riot shields, ax handles, planks and furniture.

▪ Numerous poles, some sharpened, often attached to American and Trump flags, used in several cases to beat, stab and slash police officers.

▪ A large, metal Trump campaign sign deployed as a battering ram against those protecting the building.

▪ Sporting equipment used to hit officers, including baseball bats, a hockey stick and a skateboard.

▪ A crossbow, a whip and a spear.

It’s an astounding arsenal of weapons — and facts — arrayed against an argument that typically begins with the number of firearms charges and proceeds inexorably toward outright denial of the worst attack on the U.S. Capitol not carried out by the British Empire.

After all, if we can be convinced that a finite number of guns is the same as no guns, that a lack of firearms is the same as a lack of arms, and that the absence of weapons is the same as the absence of violence and sedition, maybe we can be convinced that an armed, deadly, treasonous insurrection was no insurrection at all.