When a crowd of almost 500 violent protesters broke through an iron gate and stormed onto their property in 2020, Mark and Patricia McCloskey did what any gun owner in Missouri would do.
After calling the police and learning that help was not going to arrive in time to stop the armed mob that was threatening to kill them, the McCloskey’s grabbed their AR-15 and a pistol and protected themselves.
The police report, the photographs of the incident, and statements from the McCloskey’s made it clear that this was the very definition of a justified use (or threatened use) of force!
That’s why Missourians — and gun owners across America — were enraged to see St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Kim Gardener indict the McCloskey’s on two felony charges for defending themselves.
Sadly, this wasn’t a surprise. Gardener’s campaign for office was directly bankrolled by George Soros and Gardener was doing fundraising emails on her prosecution of the McCloskey’s until a judge removed her from the case!
Gardener is part of a growing number of county prosecutors who are being put in power for the express purpose of attacking police officers and gun owners, while encouraging the violent protesters who embroiled our state in violence last year.
Of course, the McCloskey’s pled guilty to a lower level misdemeanor charge knowing that Governor Parson was going to pardon them, and vacate the conviction.
But the McCloskey’s are a wealthy couple, and very politically connected. If a Prosecuting Attorney came after you or me, we might very well wind up in prison for years!
That’s why the Missouri Firearms Coalition is announcing a major new project to pass the McCloskey’s Stand-Your-Ground Expansion Act next session, to make sure that what happened to Mark and Patricia can’t happen to any Missourian ever again!
You see, while a version of Stand-Your-Ground law passed as a last-minute amendment to our Constitutional Carry bill in 2016, it isn’t nearly as thorough as it needs to be.
There are at least four areas where Missouri’s Stand-Your-Ground law needs to be improved, to protect gun owners from out-of-control prosecutors like Kim Gardener. That includes:
>>> Providing criminal immunity for gun owners who use justifiable force to defend themselves, their loved ones, or a third party from a violent criminal attack.
If a person breaks the law and uses unjustifiable force, he should stand trial for it. But Missourians who are clearly defending themselves from a violent attack they should not be ‘McCloskey’d’ simply because a liberal prosecutor wants to advance a demented personal agenda.
>>> Establishing an enactment clause for Stand-Your-Ground law, so gun owners can invoke these protections BEFORE they are put through the misery of a criminal trial.
Stand-Your-Ground laws don’t do much good for gun owners if you can only invoke them on appeal. At that point, your reputation has been destroyed, you would be bankrupt from legal fees, and the emotional toll on your family is incalculable.
>>> Re-writing Missouri’s assault laws to make it clear that the justified threatened use of force is not a criminal action that Missourians can be drug into court for.
The witch hunt against the McCloskey’s ended with them pleading guilty to violating Missouri assault code, 565.056.
That’s ridiculous. If your legally justified in shooting someone, the law should certainly cover you if you successfully de-escalate the situation.
>>> Ensuring that Missouri law protects gun owners who make good-faith mistakes in their use of force.
If a woman shoots a would-be rapist in a parking lot late one night, only to find out that the criminal had a replica handgun, she should not be charged. But Missouri law doesn’t cover gun owners in these situations.
As you can see, passing these improvements to Missouri’s Stand-Your-Ground law will give Missouri the best self-defense laws in the country, and make it all but impossible for Soros funded prosecutors to attack us in court!
But I can assure you that the Prosecuting Attorney’s Association, the Missouri Sheriff’s Association, the leftists AND the moderates in Jeff City will be opposed to this bill.
And so we’re going to need your help.
Please start by signing the OFFICIAL PETITION that we have prepared for you, insisting that your State Senator and State Representative cosponsor and vote for this critical legislation.
But when you sign your petition, I hope that you will make an extremely generous contribution to help MOFC fight for this legislation.
Our successful fight to pass the Second Amendment Preservation Act in the legislature — not to mention on ongoing legal fees to defend it in court — added up fast!
But with the opposition that I know we are going to be facing in Jeff City, we’re going to need to run a full-scale mobilization program to POUND on the legislature.
Some of the tools that we will be using to accomplish this includes:
>>> Unleashing hard-hitting digital and social media ads; that allow us to communicate with gun owners for pennies while making it easy for them to share the ads online.
>>> Utilizing our massive email and direct mail programs to mobilize every gun owner in the state to put pressure on the legislature. While it may seem old fashioned, ‘Big Tech’ can’t censor these programs, allowing us to get critical information into the hands of gun owners across the state.
>>> Preparing targeted radio and TV ad campaigns that we can roll out the moment that floor votes are announced; while it is expensive, nothing activates large numbers of gun owners quicker than a BIG radio and TV advertising blitz.
The nice thing is that you ALREADY KNOW how effective these programs are at mobilizing gun owners and flooding the Capitol with calls, emails, and petitions demanding action. After all, these tactics are exactly what we used to pass SAPA legislation!
And while it shouldn’t be that big of a deal to strengthen Missouri’s Stand-Your-Ground law from a legislature that claims to be ‘100% pro-gun,’ it’s been a fight to pass every single bill in our history!
It was a FIGHT to pass Constitutional Carry law. It was a FIGHT to expand the state’s ‘Castle Doctrine’ laws. It was a FIGHT to remove the duty to retreat from Missouri law. And it was a HUGE FIGHT to pass the Second Amendment Preservation Act!
And it’s going to be another fight to pass the McCloskey Stand-Your-Ground Expansion Act. But we don’t have a choice. What happened to Mark and Patricia could happen to any gun owner in Missouri until we fix the issues with our self-defense laws.
And with anarchist-liberals now in power as elected Prosecuting Attorneys, we simply can’t trust that ‘the system will work.’ It damn sure didn’t work for the McCloskeys. We need to fix this law!
MOFC is preparing to go ‘all in’ with the program I outlined above, to make sure that gun owners who use justifiable force to defend themselves against violent thugs can’t be attacked a second time in court. But we’re going to need help.
I know that’s a lot. But every day that passes is another day where you or I could be targeted by a ‘woke’ prosecutor, who wants to destroy us for defending ourselves from an armed thug!
If $250 is too much, please consider $100 or at least $25 so that we can FIGHT FOR YOU in Jeff City!
Whatever you do, please sign your petition right away so that your Senators and Representatives know where you stand and what you expect of them.
For Missouri,
Aaron Dorr
Political Director
Missouri Firearms Coalition
P.S. What happened to Mark and Patricia McCloskey could happen to any gun owner in Missouri until the issues with our Stand-Your-Ground law are fixed once and for all!
MOFC is already working on a massive upgrade to Missouri’s self-defense laws, but we are going to face heavy opposition from all sides in Jeff City.
Please sign your OFFICIAL PETITION in support of MOFC’s Stand-Your-Ground Expansion Act today.
And after you do, I really hope you’ll consider including a donation of $250, $100, or at least $25 so that we can mobilize an army of gun owners to fix Missouri’s Stand-Your-Ground law!