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Americans divided over armed civilians who flock to protests - African American News Today - EIN News

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The scenes have become commonplace in 2020: People gathered at state Capitols with semiautomatic long guns strapped across their chests. A couple near St. Louis emerging from their mansion brandishing firearms as Black Lives Matter demonstrators marched by the house. Men roaming the streets with rifles during protests over racial inequality, punctuated by two people being killed in Wisconsin and another in Portland over the weekend. The coronavirus pandemic, protests against racism and police killings, a rancorous election year and a perception that cities are being overrun by violent mobs have brought about a markedly more aggressive stance by some gun owners and widened the divide over firearms in America. Americans are turning out more often and more visibly with guns, a sign of the tension engulfing the country. Last week's arrest of a 17-year-old accused of killing two people in Kenosha, Wisconsin, with a semiautomatic rifle is just the latest flashpoint. Then over the weekend, a caravan of President Donald Trump supporters streamed into Portland, resulting in a clash with protesters in which a supporter of a right-wing group was fatally shot. The teenager and other gun-toting protesters have been denounced as radical vigilantes who benefit from a double-standard - that if they were Black gun owners brandishing their firearms, the police would use deadly force against them. To others, they are patriots seeking to bring law and order to cities that have been overtaken by extremists. "I would have done the same thing, to be honest with you," Todd Scott, of Covington, Georgia, said of the teenager in Kenosha. He's viewed video of the teen, Kyle Rittenhouse, being chased by protesters and believes he was acting in self-defense. Scott...