A lawyer for Ryan Kelley, a leading Republican contender for Michigan governor after a signature forgery scandal cleared the field, asked if his client could keep his gun after he was arrested on charges related to the Jan. 6 insurrection last week.
The reason for special treatment, lawyer Gary Springstead said during Thursday’s hearing, is that Kelley “is a bit of a high-profile candidate in Michigan” who lacks a security team, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Springstead conveyed that Kelley “asked that he be permitted to carry his firearm for his own self-defense, during the campaign.”
The judge rejected the request, noting that other people’s safety — like pre-trial officials who will have to pay visits to Kelley’s home — must be taken into account too.
Kelley was charged with four misdemeanors in federal court related to his actions on Jan. 6, including knowingly engaging in any act of physical violence against a person or property in any restricted building or grounds. He was arrested last week after the FBI raided his home.
An FBI agent’s affidavit noted that the agency had gotten “numerous” tips about Kelley, who had raised his profile in Michigan by headlining a “stop the steal” rally in November 2020 outside the state capitol, protesting the removal of a local Confederate monument and organizing an April 2020 rally where right-wing participants stormed the state capitol building in protest of COVID-19 mitigation measures.
Since his arrest, Kelley has dismissed his arrest as politically motivated theater, timed to coincide with the House Jan. 6 committee’s first publicly televised hearing.
“I think a lot of Americans see right through this, Tucker,” Kelley told Fox News host Tucker Carlson earlier this week. “They understand what the Democrats are up to, and it’s not a big deal to them.”
“So you’re running,” Carlson mused during the interview. “Bold.”
He should have complied. Wearer of pale privilege, not shot or choke hold.
I think being prone to fantasizing about shooting folks not the best trait for a Governor but who knows? Running to FOX is not exactly an act of courage or grit. Why is this asshole running?
And I just read the weak-broth gun bill is faltering in Congress because the GOP wants to loosen the red-flag provisions. I don’t know what the rationale is, but here it’s the conflation of having guns and the right to protect yourself. And we’re seeing the gun lobby more and more arguing against literally any restrictions on gun ownership at all. I’ve heard from most gun owners for decades that certainly there are some people who shouldn’t have guns. But the lobby, now, they’re drifting away from that. So GIVE MONEY. VOLUNTEER. AND MOST OF ALL VOTE. Nothing else matters.
Easy peasy: It’s been a few weeks since Uvalde, so it’s safe to blow up the negotiations and return to not giving a shit.
Sure but I meant “rationale” in its “fake-ass cover story excuse” sense.