Brandon Fellows, 30, spent several years in jail on charges linked to the January 6 Capitol insurrection. He was gun shopping online when WIRED reached him by phone on Thursday. Fellows is a felon, and under federal law he is prohibited from owning firearms.
But he’s so confident that Donald Trump, after winning the 2024 election , will make good on his promises to pardon January 6 rioters that he’s considering purchasing anyways. “I just wanna piss people off and get some guns,” said Fellows, who smoked a joint while propping his feet up on Senator Jeff Merkley’s desk while wearing a fake beard during the riot. “I want to get a couple: a rifle, a pistol.
” On the campaign trial, Trump repeatedly promised that, if elected, he’d grant pardons and clemency to the January 6 rioters. He yoked his own litany of legal woes, including those linked to January 6 and the prosecution of Capitol rioters, who he characterized as “hostages” and “political prisoners” of President Joe Biden’s administration. More than 1,400 people have been arrested in connection with January 6, with hundreds sentenced to time behind bars.
Many of those, some of whom are serving or facing 10- to 20-year prison sentences, saw a potential Trump victory as their only realistic shot at freedom or a clean slate. “We have brothers suffering today who are still locked in cells, despite yesterday’s victory,” the Proud Boys wrote on their Telegram channel, which was reposted by the chan.
