As if men brandishing weapons at legislators, health care workers, and police officers weren’t enough, the unhinged nature of the people drawn to—and organizing—the recent spate of anti-lockdown protests is perhaps embodied in the person of 53-year-old Bradley Bunn of Loveland, Colorado.
Bunn last week attracted the attention of federal law enforcement agents by posting on Facebook pages that he intended to bring high-powered weapons to Friday’s anti-lockdown protest in Denver, claiming he was organizing a broader armed response. When agents visited him at his home, they discovered he was in possession of a large cache of (highly illegal) homemade pipe bombs—and moreover willingly admitted he intended to use them against any law enforcement officers who attempted to raid his home.
Bunn now faces a federal charge of possessing a destructive device, conviction for which carries a potential 10-year prison sentence. Bomb technicians transported the pipe bombs and the gunpowder with which Bunn had made them to a range, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office, “where they were successfully rendered safe.”
Agents were alerted to Bunn’s incendiary Facebook posts and, after opening an investigation, served the warrant on his home before he could leave for the Friday protest. According to the Loveland Reporter Herald, Bunn was candid about his intentions when interviewed:
When the agent asked what he planned to do with the devices, Bunn reportedly said he would have used them in the event of a “hard entry,” apparently referring to a scenario in which multiple individuals tried to force their way into his home.
“So a hard entry in the morning, you were going to use them on a bunch of clumped up guys out front?,” the agent asked.
“F–k yes,” Bunn said, according to the affidavit.
Bunn’s active presence underscores the volatile nature of the authoritarian pro-Trump army of conspiracist “Patriots,” “vaxxers,” and “Boogaloo bois” being empowered by the rallies, which we’ve already seen plenty of signs of during these protests, including threats directed at health care workers and police being asked: “How does it feel to be a race traitor?”
The antifascist site It’s Going Down reported on the behavior of the protesters in St. Paul that further illustrates the ugly violence at play:
The nurses held fast while the Trumpers attempted to push their vehicles through the line, and repeatedly brandished shotguns and rifles at them. One Trumper used a shotgun as a flagpole. Another shouted: “I HAVE A GUN.” at nurses while waving his AR.
From left: Wyatt Winn, 23, Jesse Semrad, 36, Carlo O’Brien, 20, and Joshua Watt, 31, were four of the six AR-15-toting men arrested at a Texas bar that was attempting to reopen illegally on Monday.
In a similar vein, six “Boogaloo bois” were arrested in Odessa, Texas, on Monday after they gathered with assault rifles to defend a local bar that was opening in protest of the state’s lockdown measures.
“This was not a protest over their second amendment rights,” said Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis, “it was a show of force so [the owner of the bar] could violate the Governor’s order.”
According to the Odessa American, the protest originated at an anti-lockdown rally held at a local fitness center; the men traveled together to Big Daddy Zane’s Bar to collectively, as they put it, in defense of the bar’s First Amendment rights with loaded “AR-15-type weapons.”
Even Sean Hannity may blanch at this behavior, but there is no indication that Republicans are going to end their ongoing support for the protests. We should expect more of this as the summer approaches.
