Patriot Prayer Group Holds Rally at Centralia College

A small contingent of, what’s often described as a far-right activist group — Patriot Prayer — gathered on the Centralia College campus Friday morning, in what the group’s leader called an effort to mobilize individuals who oppose the sweeping gun control measure Initiative 1639, which was approved by voters earlier this week.

“Traditionally, we go into the far, far left, liberal areas, to kind of make a statement, and one of the things we want to do is we want to be hitting more of these conservative areas,” said the group’s founder Joe Gibson.

The strategy, he said, was to find like-minded people willing to push back against the initiative, which was accepted by roughly 60 percent of Washington voters and denied by 70 percent of Lewis County voters.

The measure will require safe gun storage techniques, implement harsher background checks and waiting periods and up the legal age of owning a semi-automatic rifle from 18 to 21.

Patriot Prayer’s larger gatherings have brought in large contingents of counter-protestors and have lead to clashes of violence and police intervention.

Friday’s gathering was a quieter affair, with a handful of members talking with students.

Centralia College President Bob Mohrbacher said groups that set up shop on campus aren’t accepted or denied by the content of their message.

“We put restrictions on time, place and manner of those kinds of events, but not on the content, and that’s consistent with state law and policy,” he said.