Failed gun-toting GOP candidate demands purity test to avoid 'totalitarian dictatorship'

The gun-toting lawyer who became a meme with his wife as they pointed weapons at Black Lives Matter protesters walking past their St. Louis home has come up with a plan to purge the GOP of what he calls imposters.

Mark McCloskey turned up at a Republican Party meeting in the city Thursday to promote a plan to make candidates take a GOP knowledge test and have their voting history checked — and disqualify anybody who doesn’t score well.

He said it was a surefire way to ensure they are a “true Republican," the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported.

“If we’re going to stand for something, we must stand for something,” said McCloskey, who made an unsuccessful bid to become a Republican Senator for Missouri in 2022. “If we don’t, then there’s no point in having a Republican Party.”

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The questions that would be used to qualify Republicans weren’t detailed, but similar calls have been made elsewhere by hardcore conservatives wanting to make sure the party reflects their opinions.

McCloskey said the test was needed because the left was assaulting freedoms to the extent that the U.S. was “so close to being a totalitarian dictatorship.”

The idea wasn’t backed by all in the meeting.

“You’re being misled,” local attorney Shaun Broeker warned attendees.