Protest group plans July 4 march on Washington with loaded rifles

By Peter Hermann,
Tuesday, May 7, 10:44 AM

An Internet talk show host is trying to gather protesters to march into the District on July 4 carrying loaded rifles, prompting a warning from D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier that her own armed force will meet them at the border.

“If you’re coming here to protest government policy, great,” the chief said Tuesday on her monthly appearance on NewsChannel 8, reacting to the group’s plan to cross the Potomac from Arlington National Cemetery. “If you’re coming here to break the law, we’ll take action.”

Lanier added, “There’s a pretty good chance we’ll meet them on the D.C. side of the bridge.”

So will the U.S. Park Police, Sgt. Paul Brooks said. If the protesters go through with the march, Park Police will be waiting for them at the District line, which happens to be on U.S. Park Service property, near the Virginia side of Memorial Bridge.

News of the march comes amid a national debate over gun regulations that emerged following the Newtown, Conn., massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. And it is scheduled to take place in one of the most strictly regulated cities when it comes to firearms laws. Washington allows residents to possess registered firearms on their own property, but the city forbids carrying those weapons in public.

Authorities noted that they have not been in contact with the group’s leader, Adam Kokesh, a 31-year-old U.S. Marine who served in Iraq and returned a self-proclaimed libertarian and anti-war activist. Kokesh publicized his plans in Internet postings.

On his blog, “Adam Vs The Man,” Kokesh called on people to register for the march, which he called an act of civil disobedience. He said protesters with loaded guns slung across their backs will march around the U.S. Capitol, the Supreme Court and the White House. Thus far, 2,500 people have signed up to participate, Kokesh said.

On the blog, Kokesh wrote that he is planning a nonviolent protest, but he won’t predict what could happen if the police move in with force. He urged protesters to submit to arrests and said the group will peacefully turn back if denied entry into the District. But separately, he said some protesterers plan to take a step into the District to prompt an arrest.

“We will march with rifles loaded and flung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated and cower in submission to tyranny,” Kokesh wrote on the Internet site. “Should we meet physical resistance, we will peacefully turn back, having shown that free people are not welcome in Washington. ... We are truly saying in the SUBTLEST way possible that we would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.”

In an interview, Kokesh said said the march is not aimed at protesting the District’s gun laws specifically but is “more to assert our rights as individuals on Independence Day.”

He said he wants to work with law enforcement and hopes that Lanier will make an exception to the law and grant his group safe passage, and even a police escort, through the District.

Brooks, with the Park Police, said guns are not allowed in the cemetery in Arlington. But he said it appears the group plans to start just outside the cemetery gates, along Memorial Drive. He said the organization has not sought a permit, as required for demonstrations on National Park Service property, but Kokesh said on the web site he does not intend to get one.

Lanier said on the television program that city representatives are willing to meet with Kokesh and other leaders “to facilitate whatever they want to get accomplished in a legal way.” But, she said, “passing into the District with loaded firearms is a violation of the law and it will be treated as such.”

In 2007, Kokesh was photographed at the Senate Hart Office Building being arrested wearing a T-shirt that read, “Iraq veterans against the war.” He was arrested again in 2011 when he led a group dancing at the Jefferson Memorial, and he has gotten into trouble for protesting in a Marine uniform and for taking a souvenir gun home from the battlefield.

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