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After Tennessee shootings, armed citizens guard recruiters

In this photo taken Tuesday, July 21, 2015, Allen Bowles, left, and Clint Janney stand guard outside a military recruiting center in Columbus, Ohio. The men are members of the 3 Percent Irregulars Militia, and say they plan to protect the center until the government provides its own security.(AP Photo/Andrew Welsh-Huggins)
In this photo taken Tuesday, July 21, 2015, Allen Bowles, left, and Clint Janney stand guard outside a military recruiting center in Columbus, Ohio. The men are members of the 3 Percent Irregulars Militia, and say they plan to protect the center until the government provides its own security.(AP Photo/Andrew Welsh-Huggins) In this photo taken Tuesday, July 21, 2015, Allen Bowles, left, and Clint Janney stand guard outside a military recruiting center in Columbus, Ohio. The men are members of the 3 Percent Irregulars Militia, and say they plan to protect the center until the government provides its own security.(AP Photo/Andrew Welsh-Huggins)

By Associated Press 1 min read

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Gun-toting citizens are showing up at military recruiting centers around the country, saying they plan to protect recruiters following last week’s killing of four Marines and a sailor in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The citizens, some of them private militia members, say they’re supporting the recruiters who by military directive are not armed.

Wearing a Taurus 9mm handgun outside a Columbus, Ohio, recruiting center, Clint Janney (JAN’-ee) said Tuesday he’s doing what the government won’t.

Similar posts have been set up outside recruitment centers in Madison, Wisconsin; Hiram, Georgia; and several sites in Tennessee.

Brian Lepley, spokesman for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, says the office doesn’t have a position on the actions as long as people aren’t disrupting the recruiting centers.