Adam Kokesh–self-described “libertarian propagandist,” Iraq war veteran, and host of the online show Adam vs. The Man–seems to have carried out his promise to buck Washington D.C.’s gun laws and load a shotgun in the district’s Freedom Plaza during an apparent one-man July 4th protest against the government.
In a video titled, “Open Carry March on DC a Success,” posted on Kokesh’s YouTube account Thursday, the 31-year-old packs bullets into a shotgun while simultaneously reciting the last few lines of his “Final American Revolution Pledge of Resistance,” posted on his blog.
“We will not be silent, we will not obey, we will not allow our government to destroy our humanity,” says Kokesh. “We are the final American Revolution. See you next Independence Day.”
Text on the video reads:
“Freedom Plaza
Between the White House & the Capitol
Washington, DC July 4th, 2013″
It is illegal to openly carry a firearm in D.C., much less a loaded one. The U.S. Park Police and Metropolitan Police Department issued a joint statement saying they were aware of the video that “appears to have been taken in Freedom Plaza in Northwest, DC,” and that they were “in the process of determining [its] authenticity.”
Kokesh, who appears alone in the video, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Initially, Kokesh had called on supporters to join him in an armed march from Virginia, which does not have “open carry” prohibitions, to the District of Columbia as a message to “put the government on notice.” But following warnings from the D.C. police department, Kokesh instead called for marches on every state capitol to demand the “orderly dissolution of the federal government through secession and reclamation of federally held property.” According to ThinkProgress, such protests were small in number and attendance. If proven authentic, Kokesh’s July 4th demonstration would not be the first time the activist has publicly defied the law. In two separate 2011 demonstrations, he danced around the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in protest of an appeals court ruling upholding a ban on dancing at the monument. Kokesh was arrested at the first demonstration, but not at the second. He was also arrested this past May for assaulting a federal officer during a marijuana legalization rally at Independence Mall National Historic Park in center city Philadelphia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sAGGoPidEY
Emma Margolin
Emma Margolin is a reporter at MSNBC.com. Recommended
