They didn't bring any guns. How can you seriously believe they tried to take over the government by force in the most heavily armed country in the world, and not bring any guns?
Pretty easily. Guns are tools, the power of which gun people overestimate.
You had the mob of useful idiots (ie the red capped mob of idiots) expressing their support of the police by beating them, and the more serious people penetrating into the chambers and offices.
Sidearms aren’t as useful as they seem in mob situations. What are the police going to do? Line up Kent State style and just mow the crowd down?
You suppress mobs with physical force. Lots of cops, divide up the mob and gas/beat them to disperse. The administration made that impossible by refusing aid. The New Jersey State police responded before the federal authorities.
The goal wasn’t “taking over the government”. It was a coup, using the stopping of a formality from happening and providing the fig leaf needed for the other guy to hang on to power. Taking a few congressmen hostage, using them as shield, and marching them to the gallows would have stopped that.
The coup attempt was not in the form of the mob themselves taking control. It was the mob trying to disrupt the process of transferring power sufficiently enough to enable or inspire other mechanisms of action. There were, for example, calls for President Trump to declare martial law. It doesn't matter that their plan was vague, poorly coordinated, or unlikely to succeed. They intended to disrupt the transfer of power and executed their intentions violently, injuring over 100 police officers in the attempt. As any number of idiotic criminals in jail can attest to, incompetence in crime does not negate the criminal act.
It also doesn't take nearly as much effort by a mob to accomplish its goals when the people who would help stop it stand idly by: 1) Not enough security was provided in first place 2) Reinforcements took hours to mobilize 3) The President refused to take any action to defuse the situation.
