On Monday, The annual lobby day, which gives voters a chance to petition state lawmakers on any issue, drew fewer than 50 pro gun protesters, many from the far right proud boys and the anti government boogaloo movement who were openly carrying semiautomatic weapons.

Boogaloo boy Mike Dunn said.

Doing so violated a city ordinance.

Why do it so openly?

Uh, they made it unconstitutional.

Ordinance.

We're not gonna comply, so why not?

Has there been any effort on their part to enforce things?

Does it look like it?

Lobby day gathering in Richmond, which was the capital of the Confederacy during the US Civil War, always falls on Martin Luther King Jr Day.

Until this year.

Virginia also commemorated the birthdays of Confederate Generals Robert E.

Lee and Stonewall Jackson with a state holiday in January.

But last year the state legislature passed a bill eliminating it.

Monday's event had put authorities on high alert following the siege of the U.

S Capitol, but Richmond remained mostly quiet and demonstrators were outnumbered by reporters about 110 miles north.

A small fire under a bridge in Washington, D.

C.

Triggered a temporary lock down of the U.

S Capitol complex on Monday, underscoring the heightened security concerns after the January 6th riot.

Participants in a rehearsal for President elect Joe Biden's inauguration were held in the Capitol Rotunda and other indoor areas.

The U.

S Secret Service later said there was no threat to the public.

The rehearsal, which had been originally scheduled for Sunday, was delayed by one day due to security concerns.

But like the lobby day turnout, pro trump demonstrations planned across the country on Sunday largely fizzled after the FBI issued warnings and several states deployed the National Guard.

Biden, who will be sworn in on Wednesday, volunteered at a food bank in Philadelphia to mark MLK Day, the Onley US federal holiday designated as a national day of service, according to AmeriCorps.