St. Louis gun owner Mark McCloskey, who waved AR-15 at BLM protesters, announces run for US Senate

ST. LOUIS - Mark McCloskey, the Missouri lawyer who faced criminal charges for waving guns at racial injustice protesters in St. Louis last summer, has announced he is running for the Senate on Tuesday. 

"An angry mob marched to destroy my home and kill my family, I took a stand to defend them," McCloskey wrote on Twitter with a video announcing his campaign, to say that he will never back down whether it comes to defending against "the mob" or "our home, our state, our nation."

McCloskey, a St. Louis attorney who, along with his wife, armed himself and confronted Black Lives Matter protesters outside their home last summer, told Politico in April that he was considering a run for a U.S. Senate seat.

"I can confirm that it’s a consideration, yes," McCloskey told Politico on Tuesday.

U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., previously announced he is retiring after serving in the Senate since 2011. Blunt, 71, previously served in the U.S. House for 14 years and is a former Missouri secretary of state.

RELATED: Missouri couple draw guns at crowd heading to St. Louis mayor’s home

The McCloskeys made headlines last June after video emerged of them toting guns in defense of their home as protesters headed toward the house of then-St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson.

Demonstrators were marching to the home of then-Mayor Lyda Krewson on June 28 amid nationwide protests that followed George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. They ventured onto the private street that includes the McCloskey mansion. The couple said protesters broke down an iron gate and ignored a "No Trespassing" sign. They said they felt threatened.

McCloskey emerged from his home armed with an AR-15 rifle and his wife came out with a semiautomatic handgun. Cellphone video captured the tense confrontation between the McCloskeys and the protesters.

The McCloskeys, who are both attorneys in their early 60s, were indicted by a St. Louis grand jury in October on charges of unlawful use of a weapon and tampering with evidence. Gardner originally filed the weapons charge in July. The grand jury added the evidence tampering charge. 

The indictment states that a semiautomatic pistol was altered in a way that "obstructed the prosecution of Patricia McCloskey" on the weapons charge.

In December, a judge dismissed Gardner’s office from prosecuting the case, ruling she created an appearance of impropriety by mentioning the McCloskey case in fundraising emails before the August Democratic primary. She went on to win reelection.

This story was reported from Los Angeles. FOX 7 Austin and The Associated Press contributed.