The organizing committee for the Iola’s Farm City Days has announced that Kris Kobach, Republican candidate for the governor of Kansas, can mount a machine gun replica on a campaign jeep during the event, according to local media reports.
The committee previously told Kobach that he would have to remove the replica gun from his jeep, also sporting a Stars and Stripes paintjob and a Donald Trump bobblehead, if he wanted the vehicle to take part in the parade.
In response to this development, Kobach declared that this decision would "violate his free-speech rights as a proponent of the right to bear arms."
Daniel Schowengerdt, an attorney for the organizing committee, claimed however that the group he represents did not intend to "forcibly prevent [Kobach] from entering" the parade.
As Schowengerdt explained, the committee now expects Kobach to mark the machine gun as a replica, and also to mount a sign on his jeep, saying that the parade does not "condone the display of large-scale military weapons."