The guards deployed to the Capitol will also wear a protective helmet, gas masks and a Kevlar armor, she said.
She stressed that Guard members were trained to “try everything to degenerate a situation before they have to draw their weapon and use it” as part of the civil disturbance.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy called on federal and local authorities to provide armed guards to support law enforcement protecting the Capitol earlier Tuesday, Johnson said.
Defense officials and civilian authorities have considered arming up to 15,000 guards from across the country who are expected to deploy to Washington to respond to violent protests before the inauguration.
Before the Capitol stormed Wednesday by a pro-Trump crowd, Mayor Muriel Bowser deliberately tried to limit the role of the military in the city’s response to planned protests. She asked that the guards deployed to the scene be unarmed.
But the calculation has changed over the past few days as law enforcers have received credible threats from armed militias planning to move to the Capitol during the days leading up to the January 20 inauguration, especially as the House votes Wednesday for a second time to accuse Trump.
“We want our individuals to have the right to self-defense,” National Guard bureau chief Daniel Daniel Hokanson told reporters on Monday ahead of the decision. “If senior leadership determines that this is the right attitude to be, then we will do it.”