On January 6th Mark Mazza, hailing from Shelbyville Indiana, forcibly entered the United States Capitol. Shortly after entering he was confronted by a Capitol Police Officer who Mazza assaulted. In the ensuing scuffle, where the officer used baton against Mazza, a gun dropped out from Mazza’s waistband. Mazza then managed to lose himself in the mob, but the officer recovered the gun.
This was not just any firearm. Mazza’s weapon of choice was a Taurus revolver nicknamed “The Judge.” The Taurus is unusual in that it is one of the few pistols capable of firing shotgun shells and regular rounds. Enjoy the picture of this particularly deadly weapon.
According to the charging document Mazza’s Taurus was indeed prepared to live up to its nickname. The five rounds loaded in the gun included three .410 shotgun shells and two hollow point 45 caliber shells. Per the charging document, the shotgun shells when discharged from this weapon produce an effect similar to that of sawed-off shotgun. The presence of these rounds suggested Mazza intended “to use the weapon against multiple targets at the same time.” The charging document also notes that hollow point bullets expand on impact with the body doing more damage than standard bullets.
In short, this is the sort of weapon an insurrectionist and political assassin would want in this circumstance. It is concealable, capable of engaging multiple targets with one round, and exceptionally deadly. Mazza tried to cover his tracks, falsely reporting to the local police that his gun had been stolen before the riot. When the gun was traced to him the friendly neighborhood FBI visited Mazza and warned him that lying to them was a crime. He then admitted he brought “The Judge” into The Capitol.
Political assassination was apparently very much intended by Mazza on January 6th. He told FBI agents that he hoped to meet Pelosi while there but said he was now glad he didn’t meet her because if he had “you’d be here for another reason.”
Unable to find Pelosi, Mazza went on to participate in multiple assaults on police officers. He lied to the FBI about that, falsely telling the agents that he engaged in no violence and actually helped the police. Video shows otherwise. Anyone else wondering how that day may have been different had Mazza not, through nothing but sheer luck, lost that weapon in his first encounter with police?
Like many of the insurrectionists Mazza’s identification and arrest was assisted by his social media accounts. Investigators struggling to link him to the Capitol were greatly assisted by a tweet from him directly recording events. In delicious irony, that tweet was posted in response to a tweet by Donald Trump Junior made two days earlier. Incredibly, both Mazza’s and Junior’s tweets remain up.
To paraphrase Forest Gump, Trumper is as Trumper does.
