“We spoke to the Charlottesville police department beforehand and offered to come down there and help with security,” Yingling told the Guardian. It is legal for civilians to carry weapons openly, including intimidating assault rifles loaded with 30-round magazines, which the Light Foots – but not the police or official military – carried during the Charlottesville event. Yingling said he had been asked to bring a team to Charlottesville by a local militia, the Virginia Minutemen Militia, to reinforce their numbers, and to be in charge on the day. “We absolutely would not wear something like this, the Confederate symbol, that would align us with these rightwing lunatics,” he said. He said rightwingers and counter-protesters screamed at his militia in Charlottesville.

Source: The Guardian August 15, 2017 18:11 UTC