McCloskeys, Who Waved Guns at Protesters, Ask for Weapons Back After Governor's Pardon

Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the couple who famously pointed guns at protesters passing their house in the summer of 2020, are suing to get their seized guns back after the pair was pardoned last year.

The lawsuit was filed by Mark McCloskey last year against the city, sheriff and state to get their guns back, and a hearing was held Wednesday, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The couple agreed to forfeit the weapons as part of a guilty plea to the several misdemeanors they were charged with last June, weeks before they were pardoned by Republican Gov. Mike Parson.

Robert Dierker of the City Counselor's Office, which is representing the police and sheriff's departments, said in the hearing that it's rather unexpected that the guns have not yet been disposed of.

"Obviously with our customary efficiency, we should have destroyed (the weapons) months ago," Dierker said. "We haven't. So McCloskey's a beneficiary of bureaucratic, I want to say, ineptitude. But in any event, it's fortuitous that the weapons still exist."

The McCloskey's claim their pardons entitle them to have their guns returned, as well as have over $870 in fines reimbursed, the Post-Dispatch reported.

"The loss of that property would certainly be a legal disqualification, impediment or other legal disadvantage, of which I have now been absolved by the governor, and therefore the state no longer has any legitimate reason to hold the property," Mark McCloskey said in the hearing, according to the Post-Dispatch.

The McCloskeys, both lawyers in their 60s, said they felt threatened by the protesters who walked onto their private street during global protests that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Mark McCloskey emerged from his home with an AR-15-style rifle, and Patricia McCloskey waved a semi-automatic pistol.

Photos and cellphone video captured the confrontation, which drew widespread attention and made the couple heroes to some and villains to others. No shots were fired, and no one was hurt.

Mark McCloskey, who is running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican, sued St. Louis, the city sheriff and state to get back the guns.

The City Counselor's Office contends that Parson's pardon obliterated the conviction, but not the plea agreement in which McCloskey forfeited the guns.

Circuit Judge Joan Moriarty took the case under advisement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.