Screenshot via YouTube
Gun rights activist Adam Kokesh is back in D.C. today, this time to face charges in connection with a YouTube video he posted on July 4 in which he apparently loaded a shotgun while standing in Freedom Plaza.
Kokesh, 31, is set to be charged in D.C. Superior Court with one count of carrying a gun outside a home or business. He has been in Fairfax County lockup for the past few weeks after being arrested July 9 at his home in Herndon, Va., where police, acting on a warrant served by U.S. Park Police, arrested him after finding illegal narcotics.
Officers searching Kokesh’s house found hallucinogenic mushrooms. He is charged in Virginia with possession of a schedule I drug, which can bring a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $2,500. Additionally, being found with a gun while in possession of controlled substances can bring another two years in jail.
According to an affidavit by Park Police Det. Robert Freeman, officers who inspected Kokesh’s house while executing the search warrant found a Maverick Arms 12-gauge pump action shotgun, similar to the one depicted in Kokesh’s July 4 video, lodged in the headboard of Kokesh’s bed. Police also found nine other firearms, including three handguns, five rifles, and another shotgun, along with ammunition of various sizes.
Police also seized marijuana, hallucinogenic mushrooms, and other narcotics from Kokesh’s house, according to Freeman’s affidavit.
Kokesh posted the 23-second clip the morning of Independence Day, about two months after originally pledging to lead a parade of like-minded activists carrying loaded rifles across the Arlington Memorial Bridge in defiance of D.C.’s gun laws, which are among the tightest in the United States. He later abandoned those plans, but traveled to Freedom Plaza himself early July 4 to shoot the video.
In the clip, Kokesh loads four shells into the shotgun while reciting lines from a manifesto he calls the “Final American Revolution.”
“We will not be silent,” he says. “We will not obey. We will not allow our government to destroy our humanity. We are the final American revolution. See you next Independence Day.” At the end of his speech, Kokesh pumps the shotgun to push a shell into its chamber. Freeman writes in the affidavit that the sound the gun makes at the 15-second mark is consistent with that of a a pump action shotgun being loaded.
Kokesh was transferred to D.C. authorities this morning following a two-and-a-half week stay in a Fairfax County jail. He was granted $5,000 bond on the Virginia charges on July 15, but has remained behind bars as his supporters try to raise the funds for his release.
UPDATE, 5:26 p.m.: Kokesh was arrested on the D.C. gun charge Thursday and transferred Friday morning to the District court system, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Ron Machen says. Kokesh appeared in D.C. Superior Court and was charged with a single count of carrying a gun outside a home or place of business, which carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. He will be held through the weekend and will re-appear in court Monday for a detention hearing.