The St. Louis couple who went viral in 2020 for waving their firearms at Black Lives Matter protesters marching past their house got a clean slate from a Missouri judge who expunged misdemeanors from their records this week. Now, they want their precious guns back.
Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the attorneys who outraged the left and charmed the right with their rifle-waving counter protest in 2020, officially got their records scrubbed on Wednesday, against the wishes of city prosecutors and police. Judge Joseph P. Whyte, granting the McCloskeys’ request from January, said the expungement was to give people who have rehabilitated themselves a second chance, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, and that prosecutors failed to show how the McCloskeys posed a public threat after June 28, 2020, the day they aimed at BLM protesters.
Immediately after the order was passed, Mark McCloskey demanded the city return his guns, which were seized after he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor.
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“It’s time for the city to cough up my guns,” he said in an interview with the Post-Dispatch. McCloskey reportedly threatened to file another lawsuit if he didn’t get the firearms back.
On that day in June 2020, McCloskey emerged from his home with an AR-15 style rifle to confront racial justice protesters who were marching past his house on their way to a demonstration at the mayor’s nearby. His wife Patricia brandished a semi-automatic pistol. They said they felt threatened by the passing protesters and accused them of trespassing on a private street.
After the ordeal, the McCloskeys surrendered their guns as part of their plea deal for misdemeanor assault charges. This isn’t the first time they’ve tried to take back their guns; McCloskey unsuccessfully sued in 2021 for their return.
