2,300 Armed National Guard Troops Deploy in Washington DC Carrying M17 Pistols and M4 Rifles

Over 2,300 National Guard troops from West Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Louisiana, and Tennessee began patrolling Washington DC streets carrying M17 handguns and M4 semiautomatic rifles, marking an unprecedented militarization of the nation’s capital during peacetime. The armed deployment, ostensibly for crime enforcement support, includes authorization to use deadly force ‘upon reasonable belief of an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm.’ The troops patrol tourist areas and downtown streets alongside federal law enforcement from FBI, Customs and Border Patrol, Diplomatic Security Service, and U.S. Marshals Service. The mass deployment of armed military forces for civilian law enforcement violates the Posse Comitatus Act’s prohibition on using military for domestic policing and erodes the civilian-military divide fundamental to democratic governance. By normalizing military occupation of civilian spaces, the deployment creates infrastructure for authoritarian control: armed troops accustomed to patrolling American streets, ready for rapid escalation against protests or political opposition under the guise of public safety.