Governor defends couple with guns as 'law abiding citizens'

FPI / July 22, 2020

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said he will pardon Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who brandished firearms to defend themselves after they say rioters broke through a private gate and threatened them.

Parson, a Republican, told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday that "without a doubt," he will pardon the McCloskeys after they were charged in the June 28 incident.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, the city’s top prosecutor, said the McCloskeys will be charged with felony unlawful use of a weapon.

"It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner, that is unlawful in the city of St. Louis," Gardner said in a statement.

Parson said he would "do everything within the Constitution of the State of Missouri to protect law-abiding citizens and those people are exactly that. They are law-abiding citizens, and they're being attacked frankly by a political process that's really unfortunate."

The governor said the McCloskey's "had every right to protect their property, their home, just like any of us would. If you had a mob coming towards you, whether they tore down a gate or not, when they come on your property, they don't have a right to do that in an aggressive manner. People have a right to protect themselves, their families, their property."

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt told "Fox News @ Night" Monday that he would seek to have the charges against the McCloskeys dismissed, calling it "a political prosecution."

Schmitt argued that the right to self-defense is "deeply rooted" in the Constitution and said the state has an expansive "castle doctrine," which "gives broad authority to individuals to protect their lives, the lives of their family members, their homes, and their property."

"At a time when there's calls to defund the police, at a time with skyrocketing violent crime rates – including here in Missouri and in St. Louis – we've got a prosecutor now targeting individuals for exercising their fundamental rights under the Second Amendment," Schmitt said.

Free Press International