Do Americans Have the Right to Defend Their Property?

            The case of Mark and Patricia McCloskey is becoming a saga. The St. Louis couple defended themselves and their property by pointing guns at a mob of 300-500 people who crashed through an iron gate to trespass on their property. Now they have been charged with criminal charges for their action, and their guns – a rifle and a handgun – have been confiscated.  

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner filed the charges and gave the following explanation for them: “It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner at those participating in nonviolent protest, and while we are fortunate this situation did not escalate into deadly force, this type of conduct is unacceptable in St. Louis.” 

Gardner is a Democrat who seems to have a leftist mentality. The so-called protesters tore down the couple’s gate to enter their property, but she charges the couple for defending their property. This is absurd!

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who is the top law enforcement official in Missouri, indicated that he agreed with my evaluation when he said that he would dismiss the case. Since Missouri has a “castle doctrine” law, residents of the state can legally defend their property. The only question is if the jury would believe that the couple thought they were acting in self-defense.

Other people agree with Schmitt and me. Missouri Governor Mike Parson tweeted that residents of Missouri have “the right to protect their family and their personal property.” If the attorney general does not dismiss the case, it is possible that the governor would issue a pardon.

Amy Swearer at The Heritage Foundation said that the burden of proof would be on the state to prove that the case was not “reasonable self-defense.” She also said that “it would be a difficult case to make” for the prosecution to champion the right to protest because the protesters left public property and entered private property when they tore down the gate.

            There are claims that this is political prosecution by Gardner. Her office indicated that there is “a backlog of cases and dozens of homicides that haven’t been prosecuted” even as this case has been “accelerated” forward. What else can we expect from someone whose election was supported by money from George Soros?