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Mark and Patricia McCloskey: pink polo shirt and an AR-15
Photo:
Laurie Skrivan / St. Louis Post-Dispatch / AP
The images of Mark and Patricia McCloskey aiming pistol and assault rifle at a "Black Lives Matter" demo went around the world. The white couple from St. Louis, Missouri, said they felt threatened by the protesters. But the scene with the two apparently well-off lawyers who presented themselves armed in front of their property in the summer of 2020 was also symbolic of the country's social divide.
In the course of the legal processing of the incident, the McCloskeys finally surrendered the weapons.
The city council claimed that both had forfeited the right to the AR-15 assault rifle and the Bryco .380 pistol - and actually wanted to destroy the weapons.
However, this has not happened so far.
Therefore, the couple is now trying to get the guns handed over to court, including the »St.
Louis Post Dispatch and the British Guardian reported.
A corresponding lawsuit has been pending for months, and a hearing took place this week.
McCloskey as the beneficiary of bureaucratic ineptitude
The McCloskeys themselves were originally targeted by the judiciary. However, after the two attorneys pleaded guilty and received a minor sentence, Missouri Republican governor Michael Parson pardoned the couple. According to the reports, Mark McCloskey argued in court that as a result of the pardon, the weapons would also have to be surrendered. The 65-year-old and his wife demanded, according to »St. Louis Post Dispatch "also refunded the fine that was imposed on the demonstrators after targeting.
After the pardon, the state no longer has a legal basis to keep the property, McCloskey said at the hearing, according to the Guardian.
Robert Dierker from the city administration said on the other hand: It was right that the weapons had not been disposed of.
"With our usual efficiency, we should have destroyed them months ago." Since this had not happened, McCloskey was merely "a beneficiary of the bureaucratic, I should like to say, inability".
He refused to surrender the weapons.
For Mark McCloskey, the proceedings may also involve the public in addition to the weapons.
Under the slogan "I will never back down," he is now trying to secure political office as a Republican - and wants to defend access to weapons in the United States.
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