When asked to denounce the Proud Boys during a virtual board meeting, a Michigan county commissioner got up and grabbed a gun.
After the woman before her spoke about denouncing the Proud Boys’ activities at Wednesday’s meeting, resident Keli McIntosh, 72, chimed in to echo her sentiment. CNN reports that they criticized the board for allowing members of the right-wing group to speak at a meeting in March about making the county a “gun sanctuary.”
While McIntosh was speaking, Board Vice-Chair Ron Clous got up and grabbed a large gun. He held it against his chest momentarily and then set it down.
“My request was, can you please make a public statement denouncing the Proud Boys, and his statement was to shove an assault rifle in my face,” MacIntosh, who saw Clous grab the weapon out of the corner of her eye, told CNN. “I didn’t think he was going to shoot me through the screen or anything like that. But the first thing I thought is, how does anyone feel free to speak up lest they do not test the temper of the commissioner, or you will be reamed over the coals by them.”
Clous told the Record-Eagle that he planned to chime in but decided to make a statement with the gun instead.
“I was just going to show the rifle and show that I fully support the Second Amendment, but then I opted not to … I was in my home,” Clous said.
Clous did not respond to CNN‘s request for comment but told the Record-Eagle that he wouldn’t condemn any group, “including Black Lives Matter, the NFL or LBGTQ.”
As for McIntosh, she filed a report with the Michigan State Troopers and intended to speak up at future meetings.
“We cannot back down; the reason our country is like this is because not a single person in Washington said anything to what was going on,” she said. “We cannot let this go unchallenged; we cannot not fight.”
