Senate candidate McCloskey speaks at Pachyderms meeting

St. Louis injury lawyer-turned-politician Mark McCloskey spoke to about 40 people at the monthly Pachyderms meeting Thursday night at Delmonico's in Jackson, proclaiming himself a "RINO remover" -- RINO an acronym for Republican In Name Only.

McCloskey, who is running in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, is known for standing in front of his home with an automatic rifle with his wife, Patricia, holding a semi-automatic pistol, as a group of Black Lives Matter protesters passed by their mansion in 2020.

Charges were filed by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner. Both McCloskeys plead guilty to misdemeanor charges, but were pardoned by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson in 2021.

Mark McCloskey became an outspoken advocate for Second Amendment rights and spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2020.

At the Thursday evening meeting, the Senate candidate emphasized the importance of the upcoming election years and explained his decision for choosing to run.

"This isn't just the most important election in the rest of our lives. This is the cutting board where our lives are going to be determined. This is the last opportunity to save our country," McCloskey said. "The last thing I wanted to do was to be a senator. If you would have asked me 18 months ago what I wanted most from the world would be for the world to leave me alone and let me live out the rest of my life in peace and happiness. But, the world has chosen differently."

McCloskey went on to explain how American freedoms are being taken away by the current powers in charge of running the country. He believes the current war in Ukraine and the pandemic is being used to accelerate our country's end.

"This is a created virus, which in my humble opinion, was designed specifically for this purpose and that is to give economies that give the governments of the world an opportunity to shut things down," McCloskey said. "Both Democrats and Republicans are pushing to exacerbate this war, and Ukraine is just designed to show us how nation-states are ill-equipped to deal with international crises."

McCloskey said he and Patricia personally witnessed Customs and Border Patrol agents, along with members of the Texas National Guard, help illegal immigrants cross the Mexican border into the United States. He believes the children entering into the United States should be DNA tested to ensure they are the biological children of the adult they enter into the country with.

The candidate also spoke on Second Amendment rights and the current gun control bill or H.R. 127, which would require the "licensing of firearm and ammunition possession and the registration of firearms, and to prohibit the possession of certain ammunition," according to Congress.gov.

"You have to have the government know how many guns you have, how much ammo you have and where you keep them," McCloskey said. "My favorite part of that bill is if you're gonna buy a gun, you then have to pass a mental fitness exam and part of that will be an inquiry into your friends and relatives, including your ex-spouses."

McCloskey is one of several Republican candidates on the ballot in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, which will be held Aug. 2.