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“An Iraq War veteran who filmed himself loading a shotgun in the nation’s capital was given two years of probation—but has no plans to stop his gun rights activism,” nydailynews.com reports. “Adam Kokesh told Judge Patricia A. Broderick during his sentencing on Friday that he would ‘refrain from civil disobedience.'” This from the man who said (in the aforementioned video) “we will not obey.” And so, “Hours after the hearing, he uploaded a YouTube video [above] and pledged to continue vlogging about gun rights . . . All of the charges against him amounted to more than seven years in prison. But Broderick suspended Kokesh’s one-year jail sentence in favor of two years of probation after noting that the man had followed all her orders since his release. Kokesh also received credit for the 120 days he already spent in jail. In return, Kokesh must register as a gun offender.” Does he count this as a win? Does anyone?

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148 COMMENTS

    • I guess that matters if business money is your highest priority. Pretty sure his highest priority is something much more valuable…

      Is money more important than the piece of paper guv is wiping it’s ass with called the Constitution? Adam puts it all on the line. He draws attention to things that would otherwise be ignored. And, he risks his life and freedom to do it.

      All of that is more valuable than any amount of fake government fiat currency.

      Too much to lose? Can’t take the risks? Explain it to your grandchildren.

        • Replace the bit about a gun with something relating to any other civil rights battle to see how anti 2nd you really are. I’m sure people said similar things while suffragettes were being beaten in the streets or protestors swung from trees in the south. I suppose all those nameless people who suffered and died when the tide was against them were just stupid.

  3. Hmm. In principle I admire the heck outta this guy. But in daily practice he is losing. Now that the gub’ment has his name on file as a baddie bad guy in their eyes, his life will never be the same. And if he continues to press the issue he will merely find himself back in jail. Jail ain’t no place to run a revolution from.

      • The guy seems like more of a hot head blow hard to me. First he tries to organize and open carry march in the most anti open carry place, DC. Most gun owners and other activists see it as a bad idea and a way for the anti gun police in DC to arrest and charge with a crime, thereby removing an individual’s gun rights. It falls through so his back up plan is to load the shotgun on video in DC. He does it, but never expects or prepares for DC police to overreact. Instead of having cameras and microphones all over his house to record the SWAT raid to arrest him and later use to make the DC police look bad, he has nothing. He’s somewhat lucky to get probation, but he is now registered as a gun offender and for what. How many even know about this incident outside of the gun rights community? He accomplished nothing outside if his own self deluded martyrdom.

        • I’m sure Obama is glad folks like you weren’t in control of the civil rights movement. Not only would he not be a millionaire and president he would likely be the repeated victim of beatings and terroristic activities. He sure is lucky the uncle toms of the day were ignored so people with the courage to match their convictions could make the sacrifices needed to secure liberty for others.

        • @Jus Bill: I can’t say that the same thought doesn’t cross my mind now and then. I figure we’ll only know over time, if at all.

  9. Hmmm.
    One part of me wonders what would happen if a thousand of us did the exact same thing.

    The other part thinks he show boated himself into being. Non gun owner. And really, for not a very good reason.

      • From reading that he has to register as a gun offender for two years “after” completing his probation.
        That would make him a prohibited person for a total of four years.

        • So he is prohibited from owning a firearm in DC?

          How is that different from all the law abiding citizens (including the minorities) that also NEED a gun for self-protection from thugs and the feds?

      • And this, to me, is one of the bigger issues. How have we come to allow such a thing to pass without notice or protest? We who have a Constitution that says, “…shall not be infringed.”, how it is even possible that there is such a thing as a gun offender registry? As if exercising our inherent RKBA is a vile, perverse act on a par with sex crimes. Our founding fathers are done rolling over in their graves, they’ve packed up and moved to Mars.

    • Blatant infringement. And exactly who was the victim of his shotgun in DC video? He was in jail as a political prisoner.

      • Yeah, pretty much. And also for being a blowhard grandstanding azzhole on the Innernetz.

        It’s really not too bright to expect a pass for sassing the Police Chief and the Mayor in public. Even in a deserted square during shift change so you don’t film yourself being arrested. Maybe he can try that stunt in Manhattan next. In Times Square. At noon.

        Hey Adam, you reading this???

      • Guys, it is rare that an activist is as wise and pure as Jesus (not that that helped keep JC off the cross). Cut the man some slack.

        Now what I’d suggest would be the next act of civil disobedience would be a large group marching in DC holding up a spent shell casing on the end of a pencil.

        • Possessing a spent ammo casing, .22LR, .45, 9mm, 12 gauge, will get you arrested in DC as fast as displaying an actual firearm. So just take the gats.

        • So one guy accidentally spills a bag of shell casings and a bunch of people help pick up the litter. Are they going to arrest 5000 people for picking up litter?

    • Yeah! You go ahead and show your oppressors exactly what you think of their idiotic laws! By obeying them without question. Liberty or death! Just not inconvenience, or I like my liberty but it’s not really worth sacrificing for.

        • No but I will respect those few who do with out compromising their rights. I call you on this bullshit idea you and others seem to have that you can’t understand and support someone’s actions without following in lock step. I , like you may have a different tactic in mind but I unlike you do not think my path is the only one worth walking.

  12. I don’t like the fact that he got a gun offender status, and two years probation for what he did seems extreme. Glad that he’s not going to jail any longer, though.

    • I think he got a slap on the wrist by the court. He screamed out loud on the Internet that “The Emperor has no clothes!” by promoting the march that didn’t happen, garnering MSM attention for it, then making/posting the video of him committing a crime (in a way that assured his personal safety), and finally taunting the Mayor of DC and the Chief of the MPD.

      He’s damned lucky that others took less self-aggrandizing steps to advance our cause. If that didn’t happen, he’d be a guest at Lorton right now, awaiting a plane to a federal hell hole in the North Pimple Correctional Facility.

  13. Why does TTAG consider this guy important? Again. Still.
    As HK-47 so eloquently said, “he is a fleshy meatbag, master. Nothing more.”

    Moving on to more important things/people/lint in my pocket…

    • Is there a third option, one including a cyanide pill and an expensive whiskey chaser?

      Honestly, people who bitch and complain and make an ass of themselves do nothing but hurt our cause. We’re better off with fewer numbers in our ranks if it means that they’re of a higher intellectual and moral standard.

  15. he is dumb. I’m glad he is out, but he is dumb. he helped our cause in no way, and made us all look like extremists.

    • Oh but we are extremists, to the exact same extent that “the other side” is extremist. The difference is most of us accept, even relish, the concept of personal responsibility and want our rights un-messed with, and to also live our lives in peace without “help” from the nanny state. The “other side” just can’t have that. They must control everything. For no other reason that to control it. They certainly don’t help or solve anything.

    • Another person who enjoys the privilege of gun ownership. Tell me, is this fundamentally different from sitting at the front of the buss knowing you will go to jail and if so how ?

      • Rosa Parks is one of many people arrested for not moving to the back, there is a reason she became the face of the movement, she wasn’t repellant to the cause, instead creating sympathy and national outrage. Unlike this guy who uses inflammatory rhetoric and comes off like a smarmy douchebag alienating even those that agree with him.

        • There is no wrong way to do the right thing.

          Doing nothing while talking trash about those who at least do SOMETHING makes you part of the problem.

          Repellant? Now you’re applying social mores. There was a time when black people in general were repellant because the bulk of society was defective.

          Yet again, soceity is defective and needs to be fixed and you just pointed out exactly why. Compliance with those defects will not change or fix those defects.

        • Sooo only pleasant well mannered folks? You know how the first only applies to those who say nice things.

        • You’re waiting for a RKBA messiah. THAT messiah isn’t coming. You can rationalize and hide behind protestations over this person isn’t doing it the ‘right’ way and that person isn’t. All the while, precious freedom is being eviscerated by government. If you’re a Christian then you recognize the error in that way of thinking; even Jesus was rejected because he wasn’t what they expected. He offered the salvation that they needed but not necessarily salvation in the manner that they wanted. Read about the rich young ruler… he wasn’t willing to accept the price of salvation either. (I am NOT equating Kokesh with Jesus, BTW.)

          We have what we have. The people who are standing up for Liberty aren’t acceptable to you. Okay, get out there and show everybody how it’s done proper like then!

    • S.CROCK,

      The other side considers us “extremist” for three reasons:
      (1) We want to own firearms — what kind doesn’t matter.
      (2) We claim that the police cannot always protect us.
      (3) We don’t want to “compromise” (give up rights slowly in exchange for giving up rights quickly).

      For these three reasons, unless we totally cave in to them, civilian disarmament proponents will call us extremists. That being the case, we might as well go on the offensive.

  16. For all you saying it hurt “our cause” please STFU.

    Because if you are referring to the Second Amendment, last time I checked that’s a god given right. A right doesn’t belong to anyone. It cant be owned, it can’t be regulated and you sure as hell cant take possession of it individually or as a group.

    The only cause you should have is to defend it, exercise it and support those who do the same. And when you do, think about all the people who died defending it, and think about the future generations who will know tyranny and oppression without it.

    Because when you say it’s “our cause” you treat it as a commodity to be bargained away and compromised, because somehow you think it’s yours to do with as you please. “If we toe the line and be good and obedient, maybe they wont try and take our guns away.” Wake the hell up! It won’t stop, not now, not ever.

    So please, stop treating my rights, and the rights I would like guaranteed to future generations like some kind of club. You are exactly the people that will lick the boot, right before its placed on your neck.

    • +1

      Kokesh was and hopefully still is working to expand our rights, to make a stand and to take back what was stolen from us. Are his methods the most effective? maybe, maybe not, but he’s fighting for us, at least respect him for that.

    • Amen, brother, it’s our damned Right! Instead, we got a bunch of f***ing nancy’s in here whining about a veteran who has honorably served our country, fought for our freedoms, showing us exactly how “free” we really are, whether it be about 1A, 2A, 4A and 5A. Anyone else see that vid of the Feds planting drugs on him when they arrested him at a rally? They want him gone and, yeah, I agree, he won’t last long as a “free” man, ha, but what is “freedom” when you are truly a slave of the Federal government that serves the oligarchy, a Government filled with corruption and lies, that uses the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the American taxpayer as a doormat. Back to my beer.

      • What in the heck is this video? Was it part of some movie? Or is it a free-standing video, kind of like a public service announcement?

    • “Because when you say it’s “our cause” you treat it as a commodity to be bargained away and compromised, because somehow you think it’s yours to do with as you please.”

      And not only that, some people seem to think they are the final authority on HOW to defend our rights. Who elected them? I do not remember getting an e-mail where we all decided that civil disobedience, open carry confrontations, etc., were prohibited. The Second Amendment does not only apply to the government – “…shall not be infringed.” means that I and Adam and Leonard and each of you has the natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to RKBA however we see fit.

      If the way some people go about it makes you uncomfortable, tough. Every cause needs its martyrs. Sometimes they make us all uncomfortable, but they do battle for us and on our behalf. The ant-2A crowd may try to use them to paint all POTG as extremists, but they are preaching to THEIR choir and reasonable people will easily see that these few people are simply outliers trying to drive home a point.

      It is for history to decide if their actions are any more detrimental to our “cause” than other people’s appeasement.

      • Cliches? If something is right why dose it need to be replaced with something new and fresh ? What value do ideas have if they are disposable just because you get bored with them? How about you counter these cliches before you demand you be offered new phrases to mull over.

    • Tell that to the countless people who risked death and imprisonment to secure the freedoms you seem so unconcerned about. Would you stand fast in front of your own national guard in protest of your peoples oppression? Would you risk the horrors of a thirdly world prison to attempt to bring freedom to your entire nation? Would you stand in armed conflict against the federal government to avoid standing un armed against the cartels? Probably not, so while the real men and women do the work why don’t you find a corner to sit in and stay out from under foot.

        • He;s a keyboard kommando. I’ll bet he belongs to zero 2A rights-advocating organizations (your local prepper club doesn’t count), has been to zero rallies, and doesn’t even know who his legislators are. He’s never been shot at, and just wants a “revolution” so he can be like his hero in the on-line game.

  19. I really don’t trust him. He is Hollywood, making bad movies with Danny Trejo.

    The orders for his release probably came directly from Bloomberg’s Führerbunker, Kokesh is that compromised in my opinion.

    This is coming from someone who is a lot younger than some of you and who is immersed in some of the culture Kokesh is targeting. He is not legit. At best he is a shameless, self serving opportunist and at worst he is working for the enemy.

    I would say ignore him, but instead I think you should keep your eyes and ears open for his next provocative move to associate 2A activism with “9/11 Truth”, drug use or god knows what else. He goes places nobody needs to go in defense of the right to bear arms, you have to ask yourself why?

  20. “Must register as a gun offender.”

    Not sure this could be put in the “win” column for Kokesh.

    Then again, Kokesh himself is not a “win” for the gun rights movement anyway.

    Loser, on all counts.

      • Standing out in the open in DC loading up his shotgun….yup, no worries there.

        : )

        If you believe what he did was so noble, right and just and a wonderful expression of the RTKBA, how about you drive to DC and film yourself doing the same thing. You know, if you actually mean what you are claiming.

        • Over 10,000 of us were ready to march across the bridge with him for an Oc protest into DC. But, the DC cops made it clear they had no qualms with killing everyone invilved, so he called it off. And wasn’t exposing that extreme degree of tyranny and genocidal intent really the whole purpose?

          He did this shotgun thing instead so that he risked himself and nobody else.

          He still made the point in both cases. He’s a lot smarter and more courteous than you think, and by that I mean a lot smarter and more courteous than you.

          Tell me how you intend to explain your excuses to your grandchildren.

        • @Dustin Eward: Exactly! (BTW: I, too, was one of those committed to participate. I had everything planned and ready to go for the trip and march before it was canceled. All of my affairs were in order in case things got ugly.)

    • You win a place in NICS as an offender, among other less significant things. Including police scrutiny every time a crime is committed using a gun within 75 miles of DC.

  22. Wasn’t he also busted with drugs in the raided house? So, what happened to those charges? Seriously, lets get some more in-depth reporting.

    • The fact that we’re not hearing anything about those charges tells me they were bullshit to begin with.

      • I’m betting he did a plea deal to make those go away or hide in the closet (as insurance that he stays a “good boy”).

  23. What was he convicted of? Felonies? Misdameaners? Does this mean he loses his right to own a gun legally for the rest of his life? If so he paid a harsh price for a publicity stunt.

    We are not yet and probably will not get to the point of assembling the militia on the village green. Compared to how bleak gun rights were in this country following the 68 gca we’re actually gaining ground.

    I don’t see the need for individual acts of self destruction such as Kokesh’s and Embody’s. As a group we fight more effectively thru our votes and our participation in society.

    But we certainly live in a free nation. Anybody else feels the need to copy these 2 heros, step up.

    • Unfortunate for your theory is that the 2nd Amendment is not the only governmental “issue”/”difficulty” facing our nation. But private ownership (or not) of firearms are integral factor in what direction the nation will go, how it will get there, or IF it continues in the current form.

    • We are less free now than we were at the beginning of the 1990s. I’m honestly speechless that you apparently can’t see that. NSA spying alone makes my statement true. However, there’s a whole lot more than just NSA spying going on these days… and that’s just part of some of the stuff we’re being told about. I shudder to think of what’s under the surface. Please don’t use licensed carry as an example of expanded freedom because it’s not. That’s a government privilege.

      • You’re one of those gloom and doom sky is falling kind of guys. Go, unite with Dustin and neiowa and the other brave patriots and march on washington. How free are you if you had your plans made and your affairs in order and all it took to turn you back was kokesh getting scared.

        • Nope and no. Some gun owners smeared and sneered. Some gun owners bitched. Some in my own groups were planning counter marches. Kokesh canceled the march. It was of little point then. Some were goading him to cancel and go it alone. That’s what he did and people still weren’t satisfied. Jwm and Jus Bill… here’s to you, internet tough guys. ROTFLMfAO!

          I did, however, then go on to the Vets march on DC on October 13th, 2013. I was one of the first people to reach the White House and secure it. We refused to move and I held front and center at the fence. Our efforts held the spot for others to later bring those barry-cades. It was being coordinated through text and cellphone by the two ladies on my right at the fence. I was assaulted three times by law enforcement. Were you there on the 13th? If you were, I thank you. If not, well… 😉

          So, jwm… you deny that things like NSA spying isn’t happening? Interesting world you live in there.

        • When did I deny NSA spying was happening? You guys talk like the government just started getting out of hand. Remember Hoover’s FBI? How about pre 64 and a person of color risked their life by voting? How about women didn’t have the right to vote til 1920? Government always oversteps. It’s just not time yet to go to the cartridge box.

          The fact that we can make war talk on this site or listen to Alex Jones(who would want to, but whatever) shows that we’re not saddled with a tyrannical government just yet. Vote, talk and let your reps know.

          But if you want to be a martyr, go for it. It is a free country, after all.

        • @jwm: Since you glossed over my statement about the NSA, your denial was implied. So, do you agree with me that we’ve never before seen such an apparatus so dangerous to freedom as what we have today or not? Do you contend that we are overall more free today than in the early 1990s? (Remember, I was referencing the early 1990s but meant the mid-eighties to be included and not the red herrings you tried to dish up.) How about answering a direct question or two, hmmmm?

          Also due to your silence, I’m assuming that I don’t owe you a “thank you” for October. However, I will express sincere gratitude for anything else you might have done.

        • If you’re going to “imply” things into what I haven’t said there’s no point in talking to you further. Are we freer now? I can buy a gun, travel where and when I please, express my opinions and listen to others express theirs. NSA is a crock, but I’m still as free as I ever was.

          If we’re talking about guns. When I ran around wv, Ohio and KY we had no concealed carry permits, they weren’t issued then. Texas also. Now I live in CA. Still no permits. So if you live in a state that’s shall issue, you’re freer now than when I was young.

        • You are being disingenuous. We are certainly not more free to travel and speak now when compared to years ago. I don’t know how you can make that statement with a straight face.TSA? DHS? Gun Free Zones? Affordable Care Act? Free Speech Zones? See something, say something? Hate speech? Hate crimes?

          So if you live in a state that’s shall issue, you’re freer now than when I was young.

          Are you stating that the license system makes us more free in Ohio? I have carried in Ohio all of my life and many friends and family carried back then too. Carrying concealed is now a privilege in Ohio and there are more costs associated with it. Before our licensing laws in Ohio, we simply carried our sidearms. There were far less ‘no guns’ signs then too.

          Then again, if you are looking ONLY at firearms, then you might have a minute point. But privileges do not equate to rights! Throwing the People a bone consisting of firearm privileges doesn’t diminish the lower total level of Liberty in our nation today. Rights are funny like that… I contend, as I have been… I am less free now than I was since the early 1990s.

        • John. I’m failing to see what the vets march, and I’m a vet, has to do with gun rights. This being TTAG and all. Protesting the closing of war memorials has it’s place, but I don’t see the connection to gun rights. And for our freedom of travel being more restricted than the 90’s, how did you get to DC? How did a tyrannical government with all those alphabet agencies allow all you downtrodden masses to assemble in the first place? Anybody shot? Anybody ran over by tanks?

          By comparison a vets protest in the 30’s led to some real violence. Are we freer now than then?

          As for what I’ve done. A steady course since 68. Vote, talk, donate.

        • @jwm: The point was Liberty. Our individual freedom and the RKBA are forever linked. A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

          Your comment was, Go, unite with Dustin and neiowa and the other brave patriots and march on washington. That answers your question in the last comment. 😉

          Kokesh and others (myself included) aren’t one trick ponies. The fight is for Liberty and not myopically fixated upon just one enumerated right. If we don’t have a free nation, we won’t retain our free expression of the RKBA for long. Likewise, without free expression of the RKBA, we won’t have a free nation for long. It’s immortalized in the Second Amendment. The fact that you fail to perceive that basic precept is quite telling.

          Obviously, you are deluded in your perception of what being free actually is. Perhaps you’re a statist and incapable of even perceiving the loss of Liberty in the past 20~30 years, IDK. *shrug* Anyway, your error of black and white thinking, ignoring whole parts of my posts, and picking out pieces to wiggle around about is preventing any meaningful discussion. We should end this exchange here as it doesn’t seem to go anywhere. Our conversation speaks for itself and I’m mostly satisfied with my answers. Other people will judge and time will tell. As for me, I have stated all that I believe I can about my view on the subject. As previously, I thank you for any work that you may have done to preserve the free expression of any actual rights and wish you well.

  24. Does this mean the Obama regime has a new “gun offender” website, kind of like sex offenders? Who are these “registered gun offenders?” Will they try to hump my guns while I am chatting with the mailman?

    • The mailman is a vastly overpaid gov’t employee not accountable to any local elected official. Perhaps he is the scout? Be very careful Mr Fudd.

  25. He is NOT what the movement needs, he’s a martyr of the worst kind…perhaps he should find a grenade to throw himself on…

  26. well the one positive this has is that it shows that when gun nuts talk big about insurrection and fighting tyranny it’s nothing but empty posturing.

  27. I have asked all of my “gun” friends if they know who Adam Kokesh is, and no one did.

    At this point he is stirring the pot, but it’s currently a very small pot.

    • What has ever been accomplished by not stiring the pot just because it was small?

      Taking back freedom is never pretty or socially acceptable because that same society in which freedom is being killed, is, duh, killing freedom.

      It will enver be pallatable.

  28. Kokesh didn’t deserve prison for exercising his Second and First Amendment rights. He carried a shotgun in DC as an act of protected political speech.

    While Kokesh may be a self-aggrandizing dope, he deserves to have his rights respected as much as our esteemed Attorney General respected the rights of New Black Panthers to intimidate voters at polling places in Philadelphia.

    • Hey, he did a political act, and he got a political sentence. Basically “time served.” Now he’s a hero to those who admire such things. Take it as you like.

      • I think you miss the point. When black people “did a political act” getting a “political sentence” was not the point. So far your statements have been the equivalent of someone in the fifties and sixties saying MLK got what he deserved.

  29. Register as a “gun offender”?!!!! Why don’t we mandate that libs register as Constitution offenders and put a bounty on them.

  30. Meh. Give me somebody who is an ACTUAL leader with some ACTUAL credibility.
    So when the Adam Kokesh Act gets pushed through to liberate NY and CA, come get me.

    Until then, NEXT!

    • Ah, an after the fact supporter. Nice. Good to know only people you approve of deserve rights. I also like how you equate success with passage of further laws enumerating our privileges as granted by our rulers rather than an admission of the pre existence of said rights.

      • Damn straight. Just for putting words in my mouth, I hereby revoke yours! To the labor camp with you!
        Lol like what you say is supposed to make me change my mind? I’ve never liked this guy and probably never will. He wants to be a leader SO HARD that he’s moving backwards instead of forwards; alienating instead of inspiring.
        As for the whole passage of laws statement, I really hope you are being funny. The last thing we need is more laws, much less one with his name on it.

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