Here's How Oath Keepers "Train" to #Stopantifa

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Federal prosecutors have charged 10 members of the far-right Oath Keepers with conspiring to storm the US Capitol on January 6 and allege that militia members prepared for the “operation” by “attending or scheduling trainings to learn paramilitary combat tactics.” Video and images reviewed by Mother Jones show that three of the those indicted Oath Keepers attended two “gunfight oriented training” sessions last fall at the Ares Firearms Training Facility in Leesburg, Florida.

Prosecutors have not cited these specific trainings, held before Election Day, on September 20 and October 25, in documents charging Oath Keepers. But the sessions are notable. In the first, an instructor coached the three militia members and others on how to “drop” adversaries by shooting them in the heart, lungs, or head. The instructor, a Florida resident named Andrew Smrecek, who describes himself as a former Marine Corps rifleman, posted the video and images from this training online with hashtags that include “#stopantifa,” “#stopcommunism,” and “#giveviolenceachance.” Members of the group at the training, including Smrecek, later acted as security guards for Roger Stone at “stop the steal” events where the longtime Trump adviser claimed Donald Trump had been cheated out of an election win in November and urged Americans to fight to keep Trump in office.

In a video from the September 20 session, Smrecek wears a shirt from a company he runs called Combat Art Training with the slogan “Keep Fighting Communism” on the back. He instructs the group of six on how to shoot foes “to stop a threat” and suggests aiming at the collar line in hopes of hitting the heart or lungs to create “massive hemorrhaging” or “a sucking chest wound.” He also tells trainees to “think about a head shot” at close range and to aim “in between the eyes…[at] the squishy stuff.”

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