ACLU will no longer automatically defend free speech for groups with firearms

Rob Shimshock, DCNF

The ACLU will no longer automatically defend free speech for groups that use firearms during protests, according to a statement released Thursday by the civil liberties group.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - AUGUST 12: A protester wearing a pistol on his hip stands near the location where a car plowed into a crowd of protestors marching through a downtown shopping district August 12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. The car allegedly plowed through a crowd, and at least one person has died from the incident, following the shutdown of the 'Unite the Right' rally by police after white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' and counter-protesters clashed near Emancipation Park, where a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee is slated to be removed. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) — (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

This declaration from the ACLU comes days after the Charlottesville rally, reported The Wall Street Journal.

“It’s neither a blanket no or a blanket yes,” said Anthony Romero, the ACLU’s executive director, to The Wall Street Journal. “The events of Charlottesville require any judge, any police chief and any legal group to look at the facts of any white-supremacy protests with a much finer comb.”

“If a protest group insists, ‘No, we want to be able to carry loaded firearms,’ well, we don’t have to represent them. They can find someone else.”

Romero argued that the decision would coalesce with the organization’s 2015 policy to support “reasonable” firearm regulation.

The ACLU sued the D.C. metro system earlier in August for banning ads from PETA and Milo Yiannopoulos.

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