Chapotraphouse

I would assume they're just there to protect protesters from police. Generally shooting at cops is a bad idea, but having enough armed protesters around does cause cops to be on their best behavior. Remember that protester a few days ago in LA that was being assaulted by police on horseback? That's the kind of situation where someone would have been fully justified to shoot those officers, an act of simple self defense.

It's rare for cops to actually shoot openly armed people. They're only incredibly trigger-happy against unarmed people. Every cop knows that it doesn't matter if the law is on their side. If a cop starts shooting at someone that is themselves heavily armed, there's a good chance that cop isn't going home tonight. Having armed protesters prevents police from taking lives with impunity.

The person shot had been at protests armed before, if security was actually familiar with leftist protesters they wouldn't have been so quick to judge.

Image from bluesky of the armed "potential mass shooter"(from a different protest):

Chuds never applied that logic to that fascist cracker that Ill not name

idiotic. This is an open carry state where dozens of people are armed. He wasn't "running around" and he didn't have his rifle raised either. There's footage of it. He's just walking around with the gun in a resting position when they shoot at him