A Bristling Standoff Rattles Gun-Friendly Vermont

Wow. Seems like NYT's headline might even be underselling this story. Looks to me like this isn't so much a "standoff" as a "former Army private using credible threats of deadly force to intimidate neighbors and local governments into complying with his demands".

> [the gun range's Facebook page] asked followers to find an S.U.V. “to shoot up and then blow up,” and specified the make and model of the car the Huletts had given their teenage daughter.

> But in Vermont, the efforts to shutter his training site seemed at a standstill. Ms. Tilander said she believed the main reason was that Vermont’s law enforcement bodies, from the town level up to the state, were fearful of an armed confrontation. “Nobody wants to go in there because everybody’s afraid of him,” she said. “We’re 99 and nine-tenths percent sure from everything he said, he has a big cache of heavy-duty weaponry and explosive material.”

> Mr. Banyai, a stocky man from upstate New York with a bushy, untrimmed beard, presented himself to Pawlet’s development board in 2018 as “a veteran who is passionate about guns.”

lmao

> He was mysterious about his past, alluding to overseas service in the Middle East but refusing to offer any details.

Fascinating. I'm sure he done seen things you ain't gonna believe.

Q: Why do all these tactical-weapons types fail so hard when it comes to strategy?

If you want to live on the east coast and consummate your gun love with any kind of long-term freedom at all, it seems obvious that you have to maintain a baseline good-neighbor role. For starters.

Prediction: This guy is going to get metaphorically sniped by normal, persistent, non-gun people who already own his glaring blind spots.