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The crowd had literally broken and entered a privately owned space and were committing an act of criminal trespass.
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Video taken by crowd members of the initial entry to the area shows that the gate was not broken or forced open. It was broken at some point, but not at the point of initial entry.
At any rate, since the McCloskeys could not have known the circumstances of the initial entry at the time they were pointing guns at the crowd, it's probably moot.
That's all assuming that breaking the gate down changes the level of the offense of trespassing--I"m not saying it does or doesn't, just pointing out the facts.
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By sheer force of numbers, the crowd created a condition where "disparity of force" comes into play as justification for the threat of use of force...
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There has to be a legally justifiable threat before disparity of force comes into play. It's not legal to point guns at people simply because they outnumber you, disparity of force alone isn't sufficient justification.
Again, I'm not saying that they were or weren't justified, just pointing out that the fact that they were outnumbered would not, in and of itself, justify them committing aggravated assault against the crowd.
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the threat of "burning you out" or "burning this mofo down" sounds a lot like the threat of "arson of an occupied structure" which IS reasonably considered in most places a threat of "death or grave bodily harm".
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From the video I've seen, this threat came after the aggravated assault by the McCloskeys. Even if it had not, verbal threats, in and of themselves, don't generally justify aggravated assault.
I do agree that if the crowd had come down the street threatening to burn houses, especially if they demonstrated the willingness and ability to do so, things would be much more clearcut.
But the fact that they responded to having guns pointed at them by making threats isn't nearly the same thing.
Again, I'm not saying that the McCloskeys were justified or weren't. I just think that the situation isn't nearly as clearcut as some have made it seem.