‘Mob rule’: Lawmakers urge Barr to protect gun rights of St. Louis couple

By WND Staff

(Video screenshot)

The Black Lives Matter protests that have swept the nation in the wake of the death of George Floyd have left behind many human and structural victims along with a threatening atmosphere in which a business owner’s praise for the president can be turned against him and his company.

It’s also threatening the right to be armed.

The Daily Caller News Foundation reports a dozen Republican lawmakers have written to Attorney General William Barr to urge him to protect the Second Amendment rights of a St. Louis couple.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey were seen in a viral video holding firearms while protesters gathered outside their front door. Their weapons later were confiscated by police.

Here’s the incident:

The demonstrators already had broken through a private gate and encroached on the front door when the couple ‘brandished” their weapons, as some media reports described it.

Police executed a search warrant to take the couples’ rifle and pistol.

The letter to Barr said the decision to seize the guns could have a “chilling effect” on all Americans.

“At this crucial time in history, our nation needs the Department of Justice to exert strong leadership to ensure that none of our constitutional protections are eroded by mob rule,” the GOP lawmakers wrote. “Charges against this couple will have a chilling effect on the entire nation, sending the message that American citizens no longer have the right to protect themselves at their own homes.”

It was signed by Reps. Louis Gohmert and Brian Babin of Texas, Paul Gozar of Arizona, Andy Harris of Maryland, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Greg Steube of Florida, Alex Mooney of West Virginia, Ted Budd of North Carolina, Steve Watkins of Kansas, Steve King of Iowa, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, and Jody Hice of Georgia.

DailyMail.com noted that immediately after the confiscation was reported the couple received “at least 50 offers” to replace the rifle.

The couple’s attorney, Joel Schwartz, told Forbes a Missouri gun store was among those to have made offers, which they are “kindly refusing,” the report said.

The managers of the gun store Alien Armory Tactical said on Facebook: “To the couple that had this warrant served, please come on by our shop and we will gladly rearm you with a brand new ar15 for ( FREE ). We will gladly assist you with a replacement for you to protect your private property for FREE! Also we will assist you with some FREE firearms training so if anything were to happen you will be better prepared.”

No charges have been filed against the couple, and Schwartz said any charges would be “absolutely, positively unmerited.”

The local prosecutor, Kimberly Gardner, has declined to prosecute dozens of protesters who have committed crimes such as breaking down gates. She said she was “alarmed” by the McCloskeys’ defense of their property and would not tolerate “any attempt to chill” the protesters.

Schwartz argued, however, the protesters “not only broke the law and trespassed on private property, but they committed property damage.”

The Washington Examiner reported Mark McCloskey said this week on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” there are “rumblings” that he and his wife will be charged.

“My attorney advised me not to be on the show tonight because the rumor is that we are going to be indicted shortly. Having said that, this is the same circuit attorney that released 35 of the protesters that torched and looted downtown St. Louis, but now she wants to indict me,” he said.

“I didn’t shoot anybody, I just held my ground, protected my house, and I’m sitting here on television tonight instead of dead or putting out the smoldering embers of my home,” McCloskey said.

He said the police officers who took his rifle acted in a professional way.

“They, unfortunately, are stuck between a circuit attorney that wants to prosecute us [and] their own belief that we did absolutely nothing wrong,” he said.

McCloskey said he and his wife brought out their weapons because there were no police managing the protesters.

“When you have certain elements of society encouraging violence, at the same time asking the police to stand down, what’s the only possible result? The only possible solution is for individual citizens to stand up and defend themselves,” he said.

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