Why Is It So Difficult for Liberals to Understand the Second Amendment?

            The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. This amendment says, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” This amendment says that Americans have the right have and use firearms. This means that we have the right to defend our lives and our property.

            Mark and Patricia McCloskey, residents of St. Louis, Missouri, used their firearms to defend their home on June 28, 2020, when “300-500” protesters broke down the iron gate to threaten their home. They were “loud but not violent,” but they threatened to kill the owners and either burn the house or live in it. I can imagine that it was a scary situation for the couple. Most of us have seen pictures of the McCloskeys standing on their front steps with guns in their hands facing a mob of rioters. Mark was holding a rifle, and Patricia was holding a handgun.

            The rioters returned on July 3, but they faced a different scenario. The McCloskeys were alerted enough in advance to hire a private security company to protect their residence. The night before the return, the couple began hiding valuables and securing their home.

            According to Albert Watkins, their attorney at the time, the couple did not arm themselves until they felt threatened.

My clients didn’t sit on their front stoop with guns…. No firearms were on them at the time that they were, as property owners, standing in front of their home…. It was not until they basically were in a position of seeing and observing violence, recklessness, lawbreaking, and knowing that the police were not going to be doing anything.

            The couple has a new attorney, Joel Schwartz, who confirmed that the search warrant was issued, but he would not confirm or deny if authorities took anything from the home. He does not know the location of the handgun.

A week or so after the first threatening visit, the St. Louis authorities issued a search warrant, and police entered the McCloskey home and took possession of the rifle. The McCloskeys were not arrested or charged with any crime, and the warrant covered a search only for the guns. Schawartz will be contacting Kimberly Gardner, circuit attorney in St. Louis, who announced that her office and the police department would be investigating the McCloskeys and their display of weapons.

I wonder if Gardner or anyone in her office has read the Constitution lately, or at least the Bill of Rights. Neither Mark nor Patricia fired their weapons, so why is an investigation necessary? If any investigation is made, it should be about the rioters who threatened them.

Mary Rose Corkery at The Daily Signal reported that other officials are looking into the situation. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr to scrutinize the matter. He stated that Garner’s decision to investigate Mark and Patricia McCloskey was an “unacceptable abuse of power” as well as a “threat to the Second Amendment.” He later tweeted a statement about his request to the Department of Justice to investigate the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office. “Targeting law abiding citizens who exercise constitutionally protected rights for investigation & prosecution is an abuse of power.”