Portsmouth, Virginia, councilman Nathan Clark participated in his city’s Second Amendment Sanctuary vote while carrying an AR-15.

The Virginian-Pilot reports that two liberals, Councilman Shannon Glove and Vice Mayor Lisa Lucas-Burke, were critical of Clark’s decision to bring his gun to the vote and asked him to apologize for doing so.

Councilman Bill Moody defended Clark, saying, “I do not believe that Council(man) Clark needs to apologize for exercising his right as a law enforcement officer to carry his weapon to a public meeting. I can appreciate liberals’ knee jerk reactions but if they have a problem with the law they should use the system they now control to change it.”

The AR-15 a Portsmouth councilman wore to a meeting this week stunned two of his peers. One wants an apology.https://t.co/IasFP1YTm6 — The Virginian-Pilot (@virginianpilot) January 18, 2020

Clark told WTKR he carried the gun openly to show support for gun rights.

He said, “I had a lot of people come and talk to me after it. No one appeared intimidated. There the police officers that were there; they were aware that I had it.”

The council passed the Second Amendment Sanctuary resolution by a vote of 4-3.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.