As the law is written, they didn't do anything illegal. The problem is twofold:

1) The law allows for things like this. The law should be changed. Open carry shouldn't trump the context of threatening behavior.
2) The law is applied unevenly based on race. Black children are gunned down by police for holding toy guns, where white terrorists are allowed to go about their business.

At that time they didn't commit any crime. I'm not saying they should be doing that and I do think is should be worrying. It is very hard to charge someone with assault when the person assaulted won't press charges. I would have expected more charges. I think the bias may be based off the fact that the White Supremacist have been flirting with the law a lot longer and know how to play that game better.

And the fact that they're white. I'm sure that helps them skirt brushes with the law and encourages them to exploit this.

You forget your binoculars to watch the protest and try the the improvise adapt overcome meme by using your rifle scope and people lose their shit.

I have done this. I have a vortex 6-24x scope that I use a qd scope mount. It is way more powerful than any binoculars I've ever used. Obviously your making a joke about aiming a rifle at protesters but using a scope for spotting isn't an uncommon practice.

While you can hold the scope like a telescope to look at things, i imagine having it mounted on a rifle held in both hands is a steadier mount for looking at things, especially if you want to look at something for several minutes.

Completely off topic but i just found out portable collapsible alp horns are a thing and wanted to share that information somewhere

Unless you are resting it on something a half pound twelve inch stick is much easier to be steady with then a 7 pound 30 inch stick. The trick in both cases is to get your elbows in and resting on your body.
Are those going to be the big thing at the winter Olympics?

Vuvuzela of the future!


Still better than the pvc pipe & beeswax homemade ghetto didgeridoo people were making in high school.

Oh well, boys will be boys.

Germany protest: Tens of thousands march against far right

Meanwhile here in the States Trump gave a nod to the far right.

During a rally in Lebanon, Ohio, President Donald Trump called Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee "a great general," and said President Abraham Lincoln "almost developed a phobia" over Lee's defeat.

Trump: 'Robert E. Lee was a great general'

...That one takes a while to soak in completely.

And it seams they are aware that the protest are going to get bigger in DC he calls "Democrats an angry mob" and tries this...

Trump administration proposes tough rules on protests

21 days.

So, the follow-up to this was: they had rifles, in cases, in their vehicle. at least one of those was disassembled. they were not holding said weapons or pointing them at crowds or anything that might have been considered threatening.

TL;DR being an asshat is sadly not in itself a crime, so they were not punished.

But the fact they where not PoC (from what i've read) probably helped them a lot. since the initial story was posted i've seen multiple stories of young (children mind, like 8-10 yr old) black kids being harassed, arrested (or at least handcuffed), and told explicitly to not play with guns because "kids like you are getting shot"... increased awareness and everyone has a video camera ow certainly means the frequency with which things get recorded no doubt is higher, but still. sad.