The us-regions man who was caught on video waving a personal-freedoms at Black Lives Matter demonstrators along with his wife outside their home is suing to have the guns returned days after a pardon granted to the couple was made public.
Mark McCloskey, a senate U.S. senate” target=”_blank”>Senate< reported. He is seeking to have the state return a Colt AR-15 rifle and Bryco pistol.
WHO IS KIMBERLY GARDNER, MISSOURI PROSECUTOR AT CENTER OF MCCLOSKEY CASE?
Mark and Patricia McCloskey draw their firearms on protestors as they enter their St. Louis neighborhood during a protest against then-Mayor Lyda Krewson in June 2020. Citing the pardon granted to him and his wife, Mark McCloskey is suing to get the guns back after they were seize last year.
(DANIEL SHULAR/via REUTERS)
“Now that the governor has pardoned us and those judgments are annulled the state should have no legitimate reason to have our guns,” McCloskey told Fox News, saying the city was planning to melt the weapons. “It doesn’t do me much good to have a couple of pounds of melted aluminum. I want my guns back.”
McCloskey pleaded guilty in June to fourth-degree assault, a misdemeanor, and was ordered to pay a $750 fine. His wife, Patricia McCloskey, pleaded guilty to second-degree harassment, also a misdemeanor, and was issued a $2,000 fine.
Mark McCloskey is also seeking to be reimbursed for all fines paid. A full pardon doesn’t remove a conviction but removes all “punitive collateral consequence stemming from the conviction without conditions or restrictions,” according to the Missouri Department of Corrections website.
McCloskey, who has owned the rifle since 1989, said the gun seizure was part of a “politically-motivated” move by the office of St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner.
The petition stems from a June 2020 incident in which the McCloskeys were seen pointing weapons at a crowd of Black Lives Matter demonstrators marching through their private community. The crowd entered the area on its way to the home of then-Mayor Lyda Krewson.
Video
No shots were fired and no one was harmed.
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“We stood on our property defending ourselves against an angry mob. The people that broke down our gate and threatened us were the ones that should have been arrested,” McCloskey said. “It was only after Kim Gardner and her social engineering program decided that criminals are good people and good people are criminals that they decided to come and seize our guns.”
“We did nothing more than exactly what the Second Amendment was designed for,” he added.
Gardner’s office was removed from overseeing the prosecution after campaign fundraising emails sent to constituents alluded to the case.
