White, Legally Armed, and Primed for Political Violence

Over two decades, Ian Rogers amassed an arsenal of more than 50 firearms, some of them illegal. In the weeks surrounding January 6, 2021, Rogers and a friend discussed plans to target the California Democratic Party headquarters. They were arrested, and Rogers pleaded guilty to conspiracy and weapons charges, for which he was sentenced to nine years in prison. Documents from his trial include text messages referenced Red Dawn and a “White Privilege Card.” Mike Spies unfolds Rogers’s story alongside the recent history of the National Rifle Association, drawing on internal marketing documents and interviews with former influencers to understand how the NRA sees its audience. “From this vantage, it remains the case that Ian Rogers committed crimes,” Spies writes, “but it is also true that he is a fall guy for an industry that knows its best customers.

As the interrogation proceeded, it became apparent that it had never occurred to Rogers that he might be wrong about anything. He was supremely self-assured, unconcerned that he had perhaps been misled and as a result broke the law. Rogers had acknowledged that the Three Percenter activities were a kind of role-playing exercise, but he was also a true believer, and for that reason he struggled to understand that he could be in real trouble, until he was finally told otherwise. Rogers asked, “What’s gonna happen to me?” and when an officer told him he was getting booked at the jail, Rogers, uncomprehending, said, “For what?” The officer referred to his illegal weapons, the possession of which constituted a felony. “Jeez,” Rogers replied.