‘A JOKE’

Republican Michigan Lawmaker Said He’d ‘Load Up a Few More Mags’ for Protesters

Gary Eisen made the comments two days before demonstrations started in his district.

A Republican Michigan state lawmaker threatened people in his district who protested police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s alleged murder. On May 30, Gary Eisen, a state representative who owns the concealed-carry education business Michigan Personal Protective Training, captioned a photo of gun magazines posted to his Facebook page: “I was at my shop this morning working, and an older guy came in. We started talking about the protesters and the riots... He said, ‘You know all those protesters are Liberals’ I said ‘how do you know that’ .... he said ‘Liberals look for trouble and civil unrest and Conservatives PREPARE for it’ hmm, so i thought maybe I will load up a few more mags…” Demonstrations organized by the local NAACP and Black Lives Matter chapters began two days later. He told the Port Huron Times-Herald he “just made a joke.”