Armed 'citizen guards' take posts in region

Weigh in: Scroll to the bottom of this story to tell us what you think of these citizen guards.

FLORENCE – Dennis Kelley planted himself in front of the U.S. Armed Forces Recruiting Center in Florence in the bright sunshine, carrying a concealed gun.

"I'm here because these guys protect us," said Kelley, waving behind him at the recruiting center behind his lawn chair. "And yet, they're not allowed to protect themselves."

Kelley, of Walton, was among a few men in Florence joining other folks around the country calling themselves "citizen guards."

They're outraged four Marines and a Navy petty officer were killed in an attack on a Navy Marine Corps operation center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on July 16. There initially was an attack on a recruitment center nearby that left one officer injured. Recruitment military staff cannot carry weapons by military directive.

Kelley said he'll sit outside the Florence-based recruiting center until Congress allows it.

He's getting a lot of support.

On Wednesday morning, people drove and walked by giving thumbs up and honking horns. A Florence police cruiser checked on the men – Kelley and his friend, Jerry Peterson, of Union, Kentucky – every so often.

A biker on a Harley-Davidson dropped off a bottled water. And that was only after someone stopped by with Skyline Chili, and another passerby dropped off some sub sandwiches at the site.

Inside, military recruiters said they had no comment on the volunteer guards outside their station.

But Kelley said a recruiter's wife dropped by on Monday, after he took up his post.

"A young lady, a Marine recruiter's wife. She had tears in her eyes," Kelley said. "She said, 'I was afraid when he was in Afghanistan and Iraq, but I'm tortured that he's here. He can't defend himself,' " Kelley told The Enquirer the woman said.

Peterson and Kelley are good friends, going all the way back to their years together at Dixie Heights High School.

They both have concealed carry licenses, they said, and they are confident they can protect the military recruiters, should someone attack.

Peterson was in the U.S. Navy from 1967 to 1973 on the USS Garcia "all over the world," he said. Kelley is a U.S. Army veteran, having served from 1969 to 1973, a year in Korea and two years at Fort Knox.

Another man stopped and said he'd join them later.

Similar posts have been set up outside recruitment centers in several cities around the country, including Madison, Wisconsin; Hiram, Georgia; Phoenix; and several sites in Tennessee, including Murfreesboro.

In Ohio, citizen guards patrol recruitment centers in the Butler County cites of Hamilton and Middletown. This comes even after Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones announced plans to increase patrol presence at the county's 12 military facilities.

Chris Tussey, a 42-year-old Franklin resident, pulled into the parking lot of a loan facility Wednesday to meet his wife. She wasn't there yet, but Tussey couldn't stay in his car when he saw a number of veterans lined up on the sidewalk in front of the recruitment center next door in Middletown.

"It was a privilege to shake their hands," Tussey said.

"They've already done their duty, but they've been called to service again, and they're here. It's amazing."

Larry Stoneking, a Vietnam veteran and Franklin resident, didn't know military recruitment personnel were not permitted to carry weapons until last week's deadly attack. Once he found out, he showed up to Middletown Monday.

At first, he was the only one. Then he called a friend, his friend called a friend and so on. Now, just two days later, there are almost 20 people signed up to patrol the Middletown recruitment center.

"We're not going to leave them unprotected," Stoneking said.

There's no evidence such centers are in danger, and the government isn't changing how they're staffed, although some governors have temporarily moved National Guard recruiting centers to armories, and several have authorized National Guard personnel to carry weapons at state facilities.

Franklin County Sheriff Zach Scott said that as long as the owner of the plaza didn't ask them to leave, the men were not violating any laws. Scott has instructed deputies to check on recruiting centers, but not the volunteer guards.

On Tuesday, the founder and president of Oath Keepers, a Las Vegas-based Constitution activist group made up of veterans and first responders such as paramedics, issued a national call to members to guard centers. Many were already guarding centers in Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma, the group's president Stewart Rhodes said.

Rhodes said it's "absolutely insane" that recruiters aren't allowed to be armed.

"They're sitting ducks," Rhodes said Tuesday. "They'd be better off if they were walking down the streets of Baghdad, because at least in Baghdad, they could move. Here, they're stationary."

Capt. Jim Stenger, a Marine Corps public affairs officer for the recruiting district that includes parts of seven Midwestern states, said he hopes the gun-toting civilians will go home.

"While we greatly appreciate the support of the American public during this tragedy, we ask that citizens do not stand guard at our recruiting offices," Stenger said in an emailed statement. "Our continued public trust lies among our trained first responders for the safety of the communities where we live and work."

A 1992 Department of Defense directive restricts weapons to law enforcement or military police on federal property, which would include recruiting centers. The U.S. Army Recruiting Command doesn't have a position on the citizens' actions as long as they aren't disrupting the recruiting centers, spokesman Brian Lepley said.

He said that while tragic, such incidents have happened only twice in six years at recruiting centers: In Chattanooga last week and a 2009 shooting in Little Rock, Arkansas, that killed one solider and injured another.

"Recruiting stations need to be out in the public; we need to be out where young people are," Lepley said. Most recruiters are Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans well trained in dealing with shooters, he added.

A group of veterans and their supporters began guarding a Navy-Marine recruiting station in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday.

"Just civic pride," said David Walters, a 30-year-old Army veteran from Baraboo, north of Madison. "It's good to show that people can still come together."

He took his turn in front of the station Tuesday with Chip Beduhn, a 44-year-old security guard also from Baraboo. Walters said he was carrying a concealed weapon and would be comfortable with violence if someone tried to attack the station.

In Arizona, armed members of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's volunteer groups patrolled Tuesday around Army Reserve offices in Buckeye, about 30 miles west of downtown Phoenix.

The sheriff said he decided to have three posse members patrol after an Army Reserve captain requested extra security. Posse members are patrolling the area just outside the Reserve grounds, but Arpaio said they would enter the property if extra security was needed. The sheriff has used posse volunteers for similar patrols in the past.

In Hiram, Georgia, about 30 miles northwest of Atlanta, a group of four or five people stood outside a recruiting office Friday with their personal firearms as a show of support. They had a pop-up tent, a few lawn chairs and American flags, Police Chief Todd Vande Zande said.

"If it makes them feel better as American citizens and they're not doing anything illegal, then I'm all for it," he said.

The Associated Press contributed.

On mobile? Tap here to tell us what you think of the citizen guards.