Photos of armed protesters in North Carolina carrying a rocket launcher, shotguns, and pistols while ordering food at a Subway restaurant are trending

Travis Long/The News & Observer

• Photos of armed protesters ordering sandwiches at a Subway restaurant in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Saturday quickly started to trend over the weekend.
• The protesters marched through Raleigh’s downtown streets to oppose the state’s stay-at-home orders, which it started easing Saturday.
• The armed protest came after others around the country, including a demonstration inside Michigan’s Capitol.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Photos of a group of nearly a dozen armed protesters parading through downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, on Saturday afternoon quickly started to trend.

Travis Long, a photojournalist for The News & Observer, tweeted the photos he took of protesters carrying shotguns, pistols, and an AT-4 anti-tank rocket launcher into a Subway restaurant.

The protesters marched to oppose the state’s stay-at-home orders, which it started easing on Saturday as the state entered phase one of the reopening process, The News & Observer reported.

The photos were widely shared in the US and even given the meme treatment after an Ohio woman digitally replaced the weapons with sandwiches.

The protesters organized on a Facebook group called Blue Igloo, according to The News & Observer. The Facebook page called the protest an “opportunity for First and Second Amendment supporters to get together, meet people with commonalities and get some exercise while we’re all wasting away at home.”

When a member of the demonstration entered the Subway restaurant, he asked if they could come inside and order and said they weren’t trying to scare anyone, according to a livestream of the march reviewed by The News & Observer.

North Carolina had nearly 15,000 COVID-19 cases and over 550 deaths as of May 10, according to Johns Hopkins.

The armed protest is not the first to spark conversation and criticism. A similar demonstration in Michigan’s Capitol on April 30 also drew widespread attention.

via: https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/xandr/photos-armed-protesters-north-carolina-204704216.html

Photo Credit: currently.att.yahoo.com