“I think the left is just salivating at the chance for martial law to be declared.”
Declaring it is one thing - enforcing it is entirely different. If anyone is killed by a member of the DHS SWAT team in Murrieta it will signify the opening of a long, long hunting season on DHS (and other government) agents. It will not be pretty nor will it end as well as .gov thinks.
There must surely be someone in DHS with enough math skills to figger out that 100 million Americans armed to the teeth with 300 million privately owned firearms is force that shouldn’t be stick-poked? Probably should be talked to politely. Probably shouldn’t be yellow-taped out of public rights-of-way. Probably shouldn’t be confined to free-speech-areas. And probably shouldn’t have publicly owned weapons pointed at them?
Confronting un-armed citizens with burp guns, as with Elian Gonzales, is career-risky at best.