It was one of the most indelible images of the Second Amendment in practice. But now, it may be a symbol of the Second Amendment thwarted.
In June 2020, a month into the summer of the George Floyd riots, a St. Louis couple, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, grabbed their guns — an AR-15 and a .380-caliber pistol — and defended their home.
The couple were fearful of Black Lives Matter protesters who had broken into and were trespassing in their gated community en route to the mayor’s home. As a photo depicted it, the armed McCloskeys stood in front of their upscale home, poised to defend it in case of trouble.
As it turned out, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, a Democrat elected with the help of left-wing billionaire George Soros, charged the McCloskeys with felony gun crimes.
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Eventually, in 2021, the couple pled to reduced misdemeanor charges.
Yet shortly thereafter, Republican Gov. Mike Parson pardoned them.
For more than a year, though, Mark McCloskey has fought in court to get his weapons back.
The plea deal the couple cut with prosecutors required them to surrender their weapons. McCloskey has argued that the weapons, which were due to be destroyed, should be returned because of Parson’s pardon.
Last week, a judge rejected that idea.
“While the governor’s pardon does clear the plaintiff’s record of the conviction, his guilt remains and the terms of an agreement that predicated said guilt also remains,” Judge Joan Morarity ruled, declaring that the McCloskeys must follow through on “their end of the bargain.”
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McCloskey said he plans to appeal.
Tom Knighton, a pro-gun rights columnist for the website Bearing Arms, maintains the couple should get their guns back.
“When the government wins a case and guns are surrendered, it’s not because the guns themselves are the problem, but because the individuals in question have been found to be untrustworthy to possess them. So, the government takes the guns and does whatever with them,” Knighton wrote on Friday.
“Yet the McCloskeys were pardoned. The governor basically wiped their slate clean. As such, the government has no right to retain the couple’s lawful property. It should return the guns immediately.”
“And on that note, the McCloskeys’ efforts matter, and I hope they take it to the next step up the judicial ladder. What’s right is what’s right, after all,” he added.
But, said Knighton, “The thing is, the law isn’t actually about right and wrong, but legal and illegal, so we’ll have to see how this shakes out.”
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