Missouri Governor Mike Parson Says He Would Pardon McCloskeys if Convicted of Criminal Charges

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has said that he "most certainly would" pardon Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the couple facing charges after they displayed their guns to Black Lives Matter protesters in June, according to several reports. The couple pointed their guns at protesters, on their way to rally outside of Mayor Lyda Krewson's home nearby, walked past the pair's home on the gated private residential street in St. Louis.

“We’ll let it play out and see how this all comes out in the courts, but I stand by what I said,” Parson said according to the St. Louis-Dispatch. The McCloskeys allegedly pointed an AR-15 and semiautomatic handgun at protestors on June 28 and St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner charged the couple in July with unlawful use of a weapon, AP reported. Gardner said that the couple risked bloodshed at what she considered a peaceful protest, the report said.

The couple was indicted Tuesday on new charges of exhibiting a weapon and tampering evidence. "Every single human being who was in front of my house was a criminal trespasser. They broke down our gate they trespassed our property," Mark McCloskey, with his wife Patricia beside him, said to reporters Tuesday outside the Carnahan Courthouse. "Not a single one of those people [are] now charged with anything. Now, we're charged with felonies that could cost us four years of our life."

The McCloskeys have argued they were exercising their Second Amendment rights and lawfully defending their home from threatening protestors, AP reported. Since then, gun-right activists and conservatives from across the country have considered them heroes.

The lawyer representing the McCloskeys, Joel Schwartz, said that a grand jury can take a while but said "the facts are pretty basic, pretty simple" and that "everything is pretty much on video" but if there were to be a delay in the process they will have to "roll with the punches."

The judge announced their hearing will proceed Oct. 14.

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