On Saturday, BizPacReview reported that a Missouri judge has ruled that Mark and Patricia McCloskey won’t receive their guns or fines back following their pardon for exercising their Second Amendment rights, brandishing weapons as BLM rioters invaded their property in 2020. This is an interesting case. There are conflicting stories about how the protesters got into their neighborhood through a locked gate. There are also reports of the protesters threatening the McCloskeys. I am confident that if the McCloskeys had not shown the protesters their guns, the McCloskeys might have been the victims–not the people on trial. It should also be noted that BLM’s record of protest does not include a lot of peaceful protests.
The article reports:
Gov. Mike Parson (R) pardoned the two attorneys last year who had pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault and second-degree harassment, both misdemeanors. They were charged after waving guns at Black Lives Matter protesters who had entered their private road in front of their home in June 2020.
Mark McCloskey filed a lawsuit in 2021 contending that he and his wife were entitled to the Colt AR-15 rifle and a Bryco .380-caliber they were forced to relinquish after their plea deal and the roughly $2,750 they were ordered to pay, according to Fox News. He argued that the governor’s pardon nullified all judgments and orders in the case.
Moriarty ruled that the pardon had “no bearing whatsoever on any of the terms of the negotiated plea agreement.”
“Plaintiff and his wife are required to follow through with their end of the bargain,” she wrote in her ruling.
The article notes:
No shots were fired and no one was hurt during the encounter. Callahan later determined the protesters were peaceful.
The McCloskeys certainly did not see it that way and there was no way they could know the protesters weren’t armed that were marching to the home of then-St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson’s house to call for her resignation. The prosecutor’s argument appeared specious to many.
During the 2021 sentencing hearing for the attorneys, Judge David Mason asked Mark McCloskey if he acknowledged that his actions put people at risk of personal injury. He responded, “I sure did your honor.”
On the courthouse steps after the hearing, McCloskey, who was a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate at the time, said he’d do it again if faced with similar circumstances according to the Associated Press.
Again, considering the track record of BLM, I am not sure I would have assumed the protesters were peaceful. This is simply another attack on gun ownership and the right to defend yourself by a judge who does not understand (or acknowledge) the rights of Americans protected by the U.S. Constitution.