More developments to this story from last night, the McCloskeys from St. Louis, on video protecting themselves and their home with firearms. Mark McCloskey spoke with NBC affiliate KSDK earlier today:

Partial transcript:

“Somebody forced the gate, and I stood up and announced that this is private property. Go back. I can’t remember in detail anymore. I went inside, I got a rifle. And when they … because as soon as I said this is private property, those words enraged the crowd. Horde, absolute horde came through the now smashed down gates coming right at the house. My house, my east patio was 40 feet from Portland Place Drive. And these people were right up in my face, scared to death. And then, I stood out there. The only thing we said is this is private property. Go back. Private property. Leave now.

At that point, everybody got enraged. There were people wearing body armor. One person pulled out some loaded pistol magazine and clicked them together and said that you were next. We were threatened with our lives, threatened with a house being burned down, my office building being burned down, even our dog’s life being threatened. It was, it was about as bad as it can get. I mean, those you know, I really thought it was Storming the Bastille that we would be dead and the house would be burned and there was nothing we could do about it. It was a huge and frightening crowd. And they were they broken the gate were coming at us.

Allred: There have been some reports on Twitter and people who say they were there. It says they are saying the gate was already broken.

McCloskey: Yes. That is nonsense. Absolute nonsense. The gate was up, broken. The gate was broken physically in half. Our trustees on Portland Place came out later in the night and chained it all up with an automotive tow chain it looks like. But no, you can talk to the trustees on Portland Place. The gate was not broken in half and laying on the ground one second before they came in

Allred: Were the protesters on your private property at any point?

McCloskey: Everything inside the Portland Place gate is private property. There is nothing public in Portland Place. Being inside that gate is like being in my living room. There is no public anything in Portland Place. It is all private property. And you’ve got to appreciate that if there are two or three hundred people, I don’t know how many there were. We were told that 500 people showed up at the Lyda Krewson house, which is not on our street, as you know. But how many of them came through Portland Place? I don’t know. But it was a big crowd and they were aggressive, wearing body armor and screaming at us and threatening to harm us. And how they were going to be living in our house after they kill us.”

This particularly stood out, bold my emphasis:

“Allred: When you see the images online of you and your wife on the patio, armed now after the fact. What do you think?

McCloskey: Well, you know, we were always obviously upset. My wife doesn’t know anything about guns, but she knows about being scared. And she grabbed a pistol and I had a rifle, and I was very, very careful I didn’t point the rifle at anybody. The only thing that stopped the crowd from approaching the house was when I had that rifle and I was holding there. The only thing that stemmed the tide. I can’t blame my wife for being terrified and for doing what she could to protect what she thought was her life, it was it was, you know, a horrible, horrible event.

And to call these people protesters either. I’ve lived in the City of St. Louis for 32 years. We were, you know, urban pioneers back when we bought on Portland Place in 1988. And we have done everything for 32 years to improve the neighborhood and to keep this historic neighborhood going. And it’s very frustrating to see it get targeted. And of course, we’d been told by the press and by Expect US, that they wanted to start targeting middle-class neighborhoods and upper-class neighborhoods and bring their revolution outside of the cities. And we got an email from our trustees on Thursday saying that they were going to do this on Friday. We’re very worried about it.

I drove to the office today. There’s spray painted on one of the boarded up buildings on Maryland Plaza, slogans saying on the board up that when we come to F stuff up. This isn’t going to stop us, is it’s a it’s a it’s a revolution going on.”

The left wanted to defund the police, well this is what defunding the police looks like. These “peaceful protestors” weren’t peaceful. This part of St. Louis City, called Central West End, was minutes from my old house in the city — it’s just a quick trip up Kingshighway from where David Dorn was murdered by rioters and a quick skip down interstate 40 from Forest Park and Art Hill where people were beaten on camera over a statue last week. Central West End is a living museum of stately homes, a jewel of architecture in (beautiful itself) “brick city” St. Louis. These streets in particular make up a gated community within the city and “private property” signs are posted everywhere. The border to the community is marked by elaborate brick walls, archways, more appearance than anything guard shacks, and imposing iron gates. You know you are leaving public access when entering the neighborhood. Because of this, police are reportedly considering there actions of the protestors against the homeowners as “fourth degree assault by intimidation.”

From the city’s daily:

St. Louis police said the couple had called police for help once they saw the large crowd enter Portland Place. The McCloskeys had been at home and heard a loud commotion coming from the street; they went to investigate and saw “a large group of subjects forcefully break an iron gate marked with ‘No Trespassing’ and ‘Private Street’ signs,” police said.

“The group began yelling obscenities and threats of harm to both victims,” police said. “When the victims observed multiple subjects who were armed, they then armed themselves and contacted police.”

The crowd of protesters eventually moved on and arrived at Krewson’s home on Lake Avenue a block away.

Police are continuing the investigate the incident on Portland Place but are labeling it as a case of trespassing and fourth-degree assault by intimidation.

Meanwhile, were the couple, as they stood on their own property, within their rights to point weapons at protesters? Gun rights advocates say yes. A police spokesperson said to ask “the courts.”

Anders Walker, a constitutional law professor at St. Louis University, said that although it’s “very dangerous” to engage protesters with guns, the homeowners broke no laws by brandishing or pointing weapons at them because Portland Place is a private street. He said the McCloskeys are protected by Missouri’s Castle Doctrine, which allows people to use deadly force to defend private property.

“At any point that you enter the property, they can then, in Missouri, use deadly force to get you off the lawn,” Walker said, calling the state’s Castle Doctrine a “force field” that “indemnifies you, and you can even pull the trigger in Missouri.”

More on Missouri’s castle doctrine here:

Missouri recognizes the “castle doctrine” and allows residents to use deadly force against intruders based on the notion that your home is “your castle.” This legal doctrine assumes that if an invader disrupts the sanctity of your home, they intend to do you harm and therefore you should be able to protect yourself or others against an attack.

Missouri’s law is more extensive than those of other states because it allows you to use deadly force to attack an intruder to protect any private property that you own, in addition to yourself or another individual. This means that if someone illegally enters your front porch or backyard, you can use deadly force against them without retreating first.

St. Louis City Attorney Kim Gardner, who perpetuates the continued lawlessness by refusing to hold responsible rioters and arsonists, issued this statement:

“Peaceful protest?” Does this newly-busted gate marking the boundary between the residential neighborhood in question and public access look like the consequence of a “peaceful” protest? Violent mobs are apparently OK (and yes, if you trespass and destroy property while screaming threats, your protest ceases to be a peaceful one) but woe is the person who would defend themselves from the violence they’ve seen on television in communities across the country?

Gardner refused to charge violent rioters by claiming she lacked evidence to charge those caught in the act. Her inverted idea of justice is endangering people. Rioters themselves previously circulated threats to take their campaign of destruction to the ‘burbs. This didn’t shock the left, but the idea of Americans defending themselves does? The Second Amendment wasn’t due to mobs of violent deer roaming the countryside, it is the acknowledgment of a person’s right to defend themselves and their family against criminal threats, violence, and yes, even tyranny within government (tyranny doesn’t bother the left so much as a good and free person’s right to defend themselves from it). This is what the Second Amendment looks like.

As Mark McCloskey said, “it’s a revolution.”

I’ll be on with Tucker Carlson tonight to discuss this.