They've been pardoned by the governor and their records have been expunged by a judge, so St. Louis, Missouri lawyers Mark and Patricia McCloskey want their guns returned. They say they'll sue the city if they don't get them. They have been in the headlines on and off ever since that June 2020 march by…
Mark and Patricia McCloskey defending their St. Louis home June 28, 2020 (Video screenshot)
They've been pardoned by the governor and their records have been expunged by a judge, so St. Louis, Missouri lawyers Mark and Patricia McCloskey want their guns returned.
They say they'll sue the city if they don't get them.
They have been in the headlines on and off ever since that June 2020 march by Black Lives Matter activists into their private neighborhood when they feared the danger the marchers offered, armed themselves with guns, and stood in their front yard.
The case has had its ups and downs, and initially it was resolved when they submitted guilty pleas to misdemeanor charges. However, they later were pardoned by Gov. Mike Parson.
With the courts still refusing to order their weapons returned, they petitioned to have their records expunged and that now has happened.
"It's a matter of the Second Amendment; it's a matter of the government not having a right to take private property without just cause and without compensation," Mark McCloskey told the Daily Mail.
It was Judge Joseph P. Whyte who ordered the records cleared, despite claims from city officials that the couple remained a threat.
"It seems the parties have attempted to make political arguments in this proceeding," Whyte pointedly noted. "This court, however, is required to look only at the relevant language in the statute."
The McCloskeys explained they felt threatened by the BLM marchers passing their home. In other cities, marches assembled by BLM in the wake of the Minneapolis death of George Floyd burned entire city blocks, leaving behind hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
They now say the city can return their guns that were seized earlier, or face a lawsuit.
They originally were indicted by a grand jury in 2020 on felony counts of unlawful use of a weapon, but those later were amended to misdemeanor harassment.
The case was brought by the scandal-plagued Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, who shortly later was asked to resign over her mishandling of an armed robbery case, and ultimately walked away from the office in 2023.
The original plea deal involved Mark's guilty plea to misdemeanor assault and Patricia's to misdemeanor harassment.
The governor's pardon followed shortly later and now the expungement has been approved.
WND reported last year on a ruling from an appeals court that they could not have get the guns back.
That ruling claimed the pardon cleared the couple of guilty, but that's not the same as innocent.
The ruling said the pardon removes any conviction, but not guilt.
WND reported when the case result left a far-left member of Congress, who took part in some of the Black Lives Matter marches during the infamous 2020 summer of riots and destruction across America, unleashing a rant over a pardon for the McCloskeys.
At the time, U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., included a not-so-veiled threat.
"His day will come," Bush said of the McCloskeys.
Rep. @CoriBush, who took part in trespassing on the McCloskeys’ property, threatens the family after they received a gubernatorial pardon: "Mark McCloskey is an absolute liar. He has spat on my name. And because of that, his day will come." pic.twitter.com/XEe5DNOxKM
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) August 4, 2021
Bush, who was in the march that went to the McCloskey property, charged that, "His day will come."
None of the marchers was charged by Gardner, but she accused the McCloskeys of holding weapons.
Then she was ordered off the case by an appeals court that ruled she had tried to advance herself politically using the case.
A lawyer for the McCloskeys explained the two were armed because they were concerned because the "demonstrators" broke down a gate to get onto the private street where they lived and "threatened" them.
The McCloskeys, however, already may have had the last laugh.
In photographs posted online earlier, McCloskey grinned from ear to ear while showing of his new AR-15. The caption says, "Checking out my new AR! #2A #MOSen"
Checking out my new AR! #2A #MOSen pic.twitter.com/Qa5UKupXSX
— Mark McCloskey (@mccloskeyusa) June 19, 2021
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