I agree with @HMP that there is zero chance of a shooter being found in courts as justified. ANTIFA only operates in areas that are friendly to their cause. My point is that I will defend myself and kids and die in that manner rather than just allowing myself to be beaten to death in front of my kids without fighting back. I will not instigate anything, and I am assuming that I have the opportunity to avoid the mess unless my kids are in play somehow. Sorry in advance if that screws up life for my fellow gun owners.
In AUG 2017, I was driving to downtown Durham to pick up my kids from school. It was later in the same week that the statue had been torn down. Rumors had been started about a KKK rally (later found to have come from the sheriff) and a huge counter protest formed. I was briefly stuck in traffic while the police set up a perimeter at the corner of Main and Roxboro (I had been traveling from the Durham Freeway on Roxboro). At no point was I threatened or did I feel threatened, but the speed at which that many people flooded the area concerned me. I took my kids home via one of the alternate routes I had already established from when there were BLM protests that closed the Durham Freeway.
Later I learned there was a minimal presence of people with masks and guns (the Redneck Rebellion people). They whole event became a non-issue because nobody from the KKK ever showed up. I realized that day how quickly things happen in an urban environment and have changed a lot of my processes and gear that is in my car, mostly in having things packaged that make it easy to abandon my vehicle and BO on foot if needed.
The difference now is that violence is an expected part of the protesting process. The protests are designed by both sides to result in fighting. I doubt that anything like 2017 will happen again where no actual violence erupts, and I expect the situation to get worse rather than better. I will likely take the hit from a milkshake rather than shoot someone, but if it starts burning, or someone is targeting my kids, or someone is running toward me with a container and is screaming "burn" or some such then all bets will be off.
In summary things happen really fast (like a flash flood), violence is getting worse by design, mere rumors can set off the powder keg of protesting, and I'm an old white dude with health issues that would be viewed as an enemy and an easy target. So the bit that I can control out of all that is not being an easy target.
In AUG 2017, I was driving to downtown Durham to pick up my kids from school. It was later in the same week that the statue had been torn down. Rumors had been started about a KKK rally (later found to have come from the sheriff) and a huge counter protest formed. I was briefly stuck in traffic while the police set up a perimeter at the corner of Main and Roxboro (I had been traveling from the Durham Freeway on Roxboro). At no point was I threatened or did I feel threatened, but the speed at which that many people flooded the area concerned me. I took my kids home via one of the alternate routes I had already established from when there were BLM protests that closed the Durham Freeway.
Later I learned there was a minimal presence of people with masks and guns (the Redneck Rebellion people). They whole event became a non-issue because nobody from the KKK ever showed up. I realized that day how quickly things happen in an urban environment and have changed a lot of my processes and gear that is in my car, mostly in having things packaged that make it easy to abandon my vehicle and BO on foot if needed.
The difference now is that violence is an expected part of the protesting process. The protests are designed by both sides to result in fighting. I doubt that anything like 2017 will happen again where no actual violence erupts, and I expect the situation to get worse rather than better. I will likely take the hit from a milkshake rather than shoot someone, but if it starts burning, or someone is targeting my kids, or someone is running toward me with a container and is screaming "burn" or some such then all bets will be off.
In summary things happen really fast (like a flash flood), violence is getting worse by design, mere rumors can set off the powder keg of protesting, and I'm an old white dude with health issues that would be viewed as an enemy and an easy target. So the bit that I can control out of all that is not being an easy target.