Flyers advertising the group and pledging to ‘do something more than symbolic resistance’ have been posted on campus in recent days
Georgetown University is seeking the help of the FBI as it investigates a series of flyers posted on campus that advertise a new chapter of an “anti-fascist” extremist group pledging to “do something more than symbolic resistance.”
The flyers, which were first posted on a campus dorm Wednesday, implore Georgetown students to “join the John Brown Club,” an apparent reference to the John Brown Gun Club, a far-left group known to train members in hand-to-hand combat and “large-scale gunfights.” The flyers tout the club as “the only political group that celebrates when Nazis die” and include the “Hey, fascist! Catch!” phrase accused Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson inscribed on one of his bullets.
Georgetown took down those flyers and launched an investigation in response, the Washington Free Beacon reported. But more flyers were posted on campus Thursday, including a new one that reads, “FOLLOW YOUR LEADER / REST IN PISS CHARLIE KIRK,” depicting Kirk bleeding from the left side of his neck, where he was shot. Georgetown also removed those flyers before reporting them to the FBI.
“Georgetown University has no tolerance for calls for violence or threats to the university,” a school spokesperson said in a statement. “Upon discovering the new flyers, the university removed them and reported them to the FBI.”
“The university’s team of safety and security experts, including its police department and specialized threat assessment professionals, will continue to investigate this incident and work in partnership with law enforcement to ensure the safety of our community.”
The flyers include QR codes that lead to a Google sign-up form reading, “We’re building a community that’s done with ceremonial resistance and strongly worded letters.” Google removed the form for violating its Terms of Service sometime on Thursday.
It remains unclear who is behind the flyers. An individual posting on an anonymous messaging app for Georgetown students, however, said the effort “isn’t a false flag” and “more info” would be “coming soon.” The individual called to “boycott GUCR,” Georgetown’s College Republicans chapter.
The John Brown Gun Club launched in Topeka, Kansas, in 2002, and other chapters have emerged across the United States since then. A chapter in the Washington, D.C., area appeared to be active as recently as 2022, according to its social media accounts. The chapter advertised “community self defense for trans and queer folks,” said Supreme Court justices “should not know a moment of comfort,” and tweeted, “‘no one needs an AR-15’ is an interesting thing to say in a country full of fascists.”
Other chapters have embraced political violence.
Members of the Texas-based Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club, for example, opened fire on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Alvarado, Texas, in July, a Washington Post investigation found. A club member in Puget Sound, Wash., meanwhile, firebombed an ICE facility in Tacoma, Wash., in July 2019, according to the Counter Extremism Project.
Similar attacks have played out more recently, most notably in Dallas, Texas, where a 29-year-old man opened fire on an ICE facility in an attempt to “give ICE agents real terror” and inflict “maximum lethality against ICE personnel.”
