But Arroyo said that if Trump loses, “there’s a very good chance that the right wing, the Republicans, some crazy people will come together and start a shootout.”
Hours earlier, Arroyo spoke on Zoom with members of other county preparedness teams from around the country, and told WIRED there was only one thing on everyone’s mind.
“The main concern right now is the potential for civil unrest due to the election,” Arroyo said. “No matter who wins, one side will be furious, and the other side, the radical left, will be even more furious, and they are well known for burning down cities when they don’t get their way. (For example, when WIRED interjected and asked about the Capitol riot, Arroyo dismissed it as something orchestrated by the left.) claimed).
His advice to members is to hunker down rather than be proactive.
Arroyo also mentioned the possibility of a “black swan” event, a popular fantasy among conspiracy theorists. A black swan event is an event that had a major impact and was unforeseen, but in hindsight seems inevitable. Conspiracy theorists now treat the term as a cousin to “false flag,” defining it as an extreme event orchestrated by nefarious forces to distract from a sinister plot. “They want to remove (Trump) so he can’t return to the White House,” Arroyo said. “Create a scenario for some kind of ‘black swan’ event to cancel the elections in order to create an environment in which martial law can be declared. ”
Jim and Janet Arroyo moved to Yavapai County from California in the early 2000s to escape overly restrictive gun laws.
In Arizona, they found a state much better suited to their gun needs.
“This is a big gun culture. Arizona has the most privately owned machine guns in the country,” Arroyo boasts. “Yavapai County has the most machine guns in Arizona. That’s our claim to fame.”
(According to a 2021 report by the ATF, Arizona is not even among the top 10 machine gun-owning states in the U.S., with California having significantly higher ownership rates.)
But as Arroyo was bragging about how guns are welcome in Arizona, a bartender approached him and told him he wasn’t allowed to have a gun inside the bar. Arroyo said she wasn’t drinking, but the bartender insisted. “No problem,” Arroyo said, taking the gun out to the Jeep.
