A man has defended him and his wife's decision to point guns at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their mansion home on Sunday.
Personal injury lawyers Mark and Patricia McCloskey are now being slammed online for their reaction to protesters passing their Forest Park home in St. Louis as they made their way to challenge Mayor Lyda Krewson.
Mark armed himself with a rifle and Patricia wielded a handgun.
A tweet of the incident was captioned: "White people in St. Louis who are so threatened by people marching in support of #BlackLivesMatter that they come out of their house and point guns at protesters are a perfect metaphor for why these protests are necessary. Also they should be arrested."
Watch the shocking footage below:When footage and pictures of the incident went viral, the husband said that the couple felt like they had no option but to arm themselves because they were fearing for their lives.
The Tennessee Star reports that he said: "We were threatened with our lives, threatened with a house being burned down, my office building being burned down, even our dog's life being threatened."
This footage of the man in a salmon pink shirt was captioned: "BLM protestors barraged a neighborhood. Man comes outside with his AR-15 to defend his family. Incredible."
Despite the footage clearly depicting a peaceful protest, McCloskey said it was "about as bad as it can get."
He said: "I mean, those you know, I really thought it was Storming the Bastille and that we would be dead and the house would be burned and there was nothing we could do about it."
The couple said their home is on a private street and that the protesters had to beak through a gate to gain access to the property.
McCloskey said there are "no public sidewalks or public streets", implying that the protesters were trespassing despite them not stepping onto the rounds of his property.
He said protests are not protests "when the first thing they do is destroy private property" and "they storm in angry and shouting and threatening", and instead said the event was "a revolution" and "an attempt to inflict terror."
He said he said his family were "terrified that [they'd] be murdered within seconds", not considering the fact that he was putting the same level of fear into the protestors' minds when he appeared with his weapon.
The couple's attorney Albert Watkins told the Associated Press that despite what the footage and images of the incident suggest, the couple are civil rights advocates and supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement.
He said the couple only resorted to threatening people with their guns when their private property was threatened.
Watkins said: "The most important thing for them is that their images (holding the guns) don't become the basis for a rallying cry for people who oppose the Black Lives Matter message.
"They want to make it really clear that they believe the Black Lives Matter message is important."