Gun-toting St. Louis couple are offered free AR-15 assault rifles after their guns were seized
The personal injury lawyers who brandished guns at protesters streaming past their St. Louis mansion last month have been inundated with at least 50 offers of free AR-15 assault rifles.
Mark and Patricia McCloskey’s guns were seized Saturday after authorities executed a search warrant, the Associated Press reported.
Since then, one gun store and 50 people have contacted them and offered to replace the AR-15, the McCloskeys’ criminal defense lawyer, Joel Schwartz, told Forbes.
He added that they are turning the offers down.
It was June 29 when the McCloskeys pointed guns – him a rifle, her a handgun – at a crowd of demonstrators marching to protest racial injustice who were en route to the home of St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson to demand her resignation.
The shocking, threatening gestures were caught on video, which went viral on social media and drew widespread censure.
The couple later claimed they feared for their lives and accused protesters of damaging the gate to their community. Video of the marchers showed them walking through an open, unbroken gate.
Many across the U.S. thought the couple’s fears were warranted, and a St. Louis gun shop calling itself Alien Armory Tactical said as much on its Facebook page.
“To the couple that had this warrant served, please come on by our shop and we will gladly rearm you with a brand new ar15 for (FREE ),” the shop said, offering free firearms training to boot, “so if anything were to happen you will be better prepared.”
A profile of the pair in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Sunday detailed a long history of litigiousness, detailing not only various lawsuits but also more than one incident involving a firearm.
“The McCloskeys are almost always in conflict with others, typically over control of private property, what people can do on that property, and whose job it is to make sure they do it,” the newspaper reported. They even obtained their palatial home via a lawsuit and have been known to pull a gun by way of saying “get off my lawn.”
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