July 28, 2015
By: Natalie Rubino
The activists standing guard outside military recruiting centers in Tallahassee were almost forced off the property, Tuesday.
Ivan Chiplinsky served as an army ranger in the early 90's. Today he's fighting in a different way to protect fellow military.
"Our oath is that we swore was to support and defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic," he said.
Chiplinsky and his group call themselves the Oath Keepers.
They've been standing guard with their concealed weapons outside military recruiting centers in response to the Chattanooga shootings.
On Tuesday Chiplinsky says the owner of the Westwood Shopping Center asked them to leave.
"We cannot leave until we have done our due diligence and we have been forced to leave," Chiplinsky said.
The group said that they were approached early Tuesday morning by the property owner to leave the complex. However, some business owners and store employees told Eyewitness News that they support the Oath Keepers' presence.
"I think it's their right, especially with everything else that's going on," Candace Hughes a worker in the complex, said.
Currently, military recruiting officers are not permitted to be armed while working.
"I think they should be able to, to protect themselves. My father was in the military so if anybody were to..I would want him to able to protect himself if anybody came in and tried to harm them," Eboney Samuel of Tallahassee said.
The Oath Keepers say they'll stand guard as long as they're needed.
Eyewitness News reached out to the owner of the complex but did not hear back.
The Leon County Sheriff's Office says it did not show up to remove the group because it never received a written request from the property owner.
