The Missouri couple who went viral in 2020 for pulling guns on Black Lives Matter protestors outside their leafy St. Louis mansion scored a major legal win last week by regaining possession of their weapons.
Mark and Patricia McCloskey collected their AR-15 assault rifle from Missouri officials Friday, five years after it was seized by law enforcement following the protest debacle.
“It only took 3 lawsuits, 2 trips to the Court of Appeals and 1,847 days, but I got my AR15 back!” Mark posted on X Friday. “We defended our home, were persecuted by the left, smeared by the press, and threatened with death, but we never backed down.”
McCloskey paired the announcement with a photo of himself brandishing the weapon outside his home – and even donned the same pink polo and khakis he wore that fateful June day.
Mark McCloskey was given his AR-15 back FOX NewsThe image of Mark and Patricia – both St. Louis lawyers – wielding their weapons against protestors became one of the most emblematic images of that chaotic summer, when BLM protests raged across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
Protestors had jumped the gates of their private neighborhood and swarmed the street en route to the former St. Louis mayor’s mansion, when the McCloskeys stepped out of their home to ward the marchers away.
Mark held the AR-15, while Patricia pointed a pistol at the crowd, afterwards claiming they felt threatened by the protestors.
The couple went viral in 2020 for wielding guns as Black Lives Matter protesters marched outside their property. UPIBut the couple had their guns seized after the incident, and they were charged with unlawful use of a weapon.
A year later, they plead guilty to second-degree harassment and misdemeanor fourth-degree assault – but the charges were later expunged.
And the McCloskeys were fighting to get their guns back all the while, filing numerous lawsuits throughout.
Their weapons were seized by authorities five years ago. UPI“That gun may have only been worth $1,500 or something, and it cost me a lot of time and a lot of effort to get it back, but you have to do that,” Mark told Fox News Digital after he finally won.
“You have to let them know that you will never back down, you’ll never give up.
“Each and every one of us owns a personal responsibility for our freedom and our democratic republic,” Mark added, explaining he and Patricia expected to get their pistol back within a week.
“If you’ve been wronged, if you’ve been overreached by the leftist government — you can’t give up. You can’t let them get an inch.”
