The pistols and powerful rifles guard members carry are similar to those local police use across the country. Troops have been told to use their weapons only as a last resort.

US National Guard members deployed to Washington, DC, started carrying their sidearms on Sunday, a spokesperson for the Joint Task Force carrying out the mission told CNN.

National Guard troops on duty in President Trump’s crackdown in Washington, D.C., began carrying weapons in the capital Sunday evening, according to a spokesman for the National Guard task force. Several members of the Guard from South Carolina were seen late Sunday outside Washington’s Union Station with firearms holstered to their hips.