At least a dozen Trump fans, several of them armed with assault rifles, others carrying signs reading “Honor your oath” and “Abolish FBI” held a demonstration on Saturday outside of the Phoenix FBI field office over the Great Raid on Mar-a-Lago, Fox 10 reports.

Typically the presence of an armed individual displaying a weapon openly is employed as a deterrent to malign actors – for example, NYPD counter-terrorism officers armed with MP5-type submachine guns will typically be positioned outside of the United Nations headquarters during the annual General Assembly as any gathering of world leaders is by its nature sensitive to threats from extremists of all stripes. Standing outside of an FBI office with a gun seems to be devoid of such a practical purpose. Of course, Arizona is an open-carry state and a person is free to stand on any public roadway armed with a weapon if they so choose. However they are not, with the exceptions of self-defense against other armed individuals and in extremely limited and exigent circumstances of lawful citizen interventions in aid of law enforcement, permitted to discharge such weapons.

So really it was just pointless dick-wagging and an implicit admission on the part of the MAGA militia people they have no faith whatsoever in their party’s promises to pursue accountability for federal law enforcement over slights real or imagined. The people holding the signs were actually more effective when you think about it, because they’re attempting to appeal to passersby with a message – even if it’s a really poorly written one. The ones with the guns are telling the passersby that they know their position is unpopular and will not convince enough voters and politicians that the FBI is evil and blah blah blah so they believe they’re going to get their way by using lethal force. Never mind the practical realities of the state monopoly on violence and what a firefight would’ve looked like if either the MAGA militia or FBI agents escalated, just focus on the message the AR-15s or whatever the fuck these cosplayers were carrying unintentionally implies.