And the Ohio National Guard is being trained to deal with us
Documents from an Ohio National Guard (ONG) training drill
conducted last January reveal the details of a mock disaster where Second
Amendment supporters with “anti-government” opinions were portrayed as domestic
terrorists.
The ONG 52nd Civil Support Team training scenario involved a
plot from local school district employees to use biological weapons in order to
advance their beliefs about “protecting Gun Rights and Second Amendment
rights.”
Portsmouth Chief of Police Bill Raisin told NBC 3 WSAZ-TV in
Huntington, West Virginia that the drill accurately represented “the reality of
the world we live in,” adding that such training “helps us all be prepared.”
Internal ONG documents provided to Media Trackers after
repeated delays provide further context to what WSAZ-TV reported last winter.
In the disaster-preparedness scenario, two Portsmouth Junior
High School employees poisoned school lunches with mustard gas, acting on
orders from white-nationalist leader William Pierce.
The ONG team discovered biological weapons being produced in
the school, requiring activation of containment and decontamination procedures.
Participants in the disaster drill located documents
expressing the school employees’ “anti-government” sentiments, as well as a
note identifying Pierce as the fictional right-wing terrorists’ leader.
ONG’s 52nd Civil Support Unit participated in a similar
drill involving left-wing terrorists with Athens County first responders last
year; public officials apologized for that training the next day in response to
complaints from local environmentalist groups.
No apology to Ohioans who support limited government and the
Second Amendment appears to be forthcoming.
Scioto County Emergency Management Agency director Kim
Carver refused to comment, telling Media Trackers she was “not going to get
into an Ohio Army National Guard issue that you have with them.”
Ohio National Guard Communications Director James Sims II
suggested Media Trackers was “inferring” from the ONG document’s contents as
opposed to “what’s actually in the report.”
After excerpts of the report were read to him, Sims said it
was “not relevant” to understand why conservatives may feel unduly targeted by
ONG’s training scenario.
“Okay, I’m gonna stop ya there. I’m going to quit this
conversation,” Sims concluded. “You have a good day.”
Buckeye Firearms Association spokesman Chad Baus told Media
Trackers that “it is a scary day indeed when law enforcement are being trained
that Second Amendment advocates are the enemy,”
“The revelation of this information is appalling to me, and
to all citizens of Ohio who are true conservatives and patriots, who don’t have
guns for any other reason than that the Second Amendment gives them that
right,” Portage County TEA Party Executive Director Tom Zawistowski said in a
separate Media Trackers interview.
Media Trackers reached out to Portsmouth-area state
legislators Representative Terry Johnson and Senator Joe Uecker for comment
about the drill, which took place within their respective districts. Neither
replied to phone calls or emails in time for publication.
ONG’s January 2013 training exercise is one of many
instances where government officials have identified those with
limited-government or pro-Second Amendment opinions as potential terror
threats.
In 2009, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned law
enforcement agencies that a predicted rise in“right-wing extremism” would be
fueled by “proposed imposition of firearms restrictions and weapons bans” and
“the election of the first African American president.”
Throughout modern history, groups and individuals associated
with left-wing causes have proven far more likely to commit acts of domestic
terror.
In 2012, members of the anarcho-socialist Occupy Cleveland
movement were arrested and prosecuted for attempting to destroy the
Brecksville-Northfield High Level Bridge with explosives, to commemorate
International Workers’ Day.
Last year, leftist groups Earth First and the Animal
Liberation Front (ALF) claimed responsibility for the sabotage and property
destruction of businesses in Washington and Van Wert counties.
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