Video: Gun rights advocate, Oakland deputies clash

Three months after he sent educators scrambling to lock down a Madison Heights high school as he paraded in front of the building with a rifle and a semi-automatic pistol, Shawn Nixon took his fight for "open carry" gun laws to the foot of the Oakland County Sheriff's Office.

In a video, posted on YouTube on June 2

, Nixon is spotted by deputies near the parking lot next to the county jail, where dozens of sheriff's employees park their vehicles at the county compound in Pontiac. Nixon appears to be videotaping the license plates, police say in the video.

A deputy asks for Nixon's name, and he refuses to give it, and also refuses to provide identification. He repeatedly says, "I'd like to know if I'm being detained," and warns that one deputy is standing too close to him. "I feel kind of threatened," Nixon says, prompting the deputy to snap, "Sir, don't start with that."

When that deputy reaches in Nixon's belongings and snags identification, Nixon hurls a string of curses at him, calling him a "jack-booted (expletive) pig," and cursing at other deputies standing nearby. He has similar conflicts with deputies in videos posted June 3, and in October. It is not clear when the videos were shot or who posted them.

In the June 3 video, Nixon and another unidentified person off camera identify themselves as journalists, causing the deputy to ask for their "press ID." When asked by the deputy what news organization they work for, one man replies: "I don't have to answer that."

In a statement to the Free Press on Tuesday night, Nixon said this, "I never set foot off the sidewalk or the public easement at the side of the road. I was not videotaping their license plates. I do not condone, violence, or the threat of violence on any human being. I am not a 'gun rights activist'. As a human rights activist, I believe in the Non Aggression Principle. I was aggressively approached ... for nothing more than lawfully participating in a Constitutionally protected activity. My First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment Rights were trampled on ... under the color of law."

Nixon is a former Royal Oak resident who declined to give his current Oakland County hometown.

Undersheriff Michael McCabe said a deputy had received a death threat following the postings, and that the matter was under investigation. He declined to provide details. He also said the department received several e-mails and phone calls from open carry advocates dismayed by Nixon's behavior on the video.

"He is not helping the cause," McCabe said. "These open carry people don't behave like that and they don't want someone like him, trying to say he represents them behaving like that."

McCabe said bulletins coming from federal law enforcement have put local police agencies on heightened alert for both domestic and international terrorist attacks. "Of course, we questioned him, to determine if he was, indeed a threat."

Nixon has in the past identified himself as a member of Hell's Saints, a small local group of "patriots" dedicated to promoting "open carry firearm rights in Michigan." But James Baker, who lists himself as president of LibertyIsForEveryone.com, said in an e-mail that Hell's Saints, which he called the informal name of the open carry group, was not involved in the recent video between an "Oakland County Deputy and a cameraman."

State law allows a gun owner to openly carry a firearm on school property and other so-called "pistol-free zones" if the owner has a concealed pistol license, although the gun has to be visible. There is no state law banning open carrying of weapons in other areas, as long as the weapon is in plain view, according to Michigan State Police.

Nixon, 39, has defended his practice in the past. In March, he carried weapons while walking around Lamphere High School in Madison Heights, prompting nervous school administrators to put the school on lockdown twice. Nixon wore a camera strapped to his chest to video his encounters with police. Nixon told the Free Press at the time he was making a point.

"I hear this a lot — 'You're scaring people.' But I firmly believe, you can't put your rights in a glass case" such as those used to display firearms, he said.

Gun rights activists say Nixon is well within his right to walk in public at places like the Oakland County complex carrying a gun, but say his demeanor may be harming his cause.

"I understand that he gets frustrated," said attorney Jim Makowski, whose Dearborn practice specializes in Second Amendment issues. "I don't think he's doing a very good job when he curses law enforcement. That's not representative of the average gun owner."

"I understand that when the police choose to violate your rights, it can be upsetting, but I think that to politely demonstrate, he could have done better," Makowski said.

Free Press staff writer Bill Laitner contributed.