Georgia residents Frank Jennings, Mike Meehan, John Sockwell and J.R. Wilson pose for a photo Tuesday. The men are serving as armed volunteers at a strip shopping center parking lot where military recruiting offices are located in Duluth, just north of Atlanta.

DULUTH, Ga. – Mike Meehan sat in the back of his van with a .45 caliber handgun tucked into his waistband and a large pistol resting in his hands.

His eyes swept left to right as he watched vehicles entering and leaving a nearly full parking lot.

Meehan is part of an armed group of men who’ve been standing watch at a strip shopping center in Duluth with military recruiting offices.

Security has been heightened at military recruiting centers throughout the country since a gunman killed four Marines and a sailor at military offices in Chattanooga last week. Federal law, however, still bars firearms from recruiting offices. 

Since last week’s shooting in Tennessee, the call for better protection of recruiting centers – called “easy targets” in a recent Washington Post article – has been met both with grassroots and institutional action, leading Meehan and other armed volunteers to take up positions at recruiting centers all over the country.

“I just want them to know I’ve got their six,” Meehan said, referring to a soldier’s blind spot.

It’s more than a symbolic gesture.

“If someone were to roll up and start shooting, we’re shooting back,” he said. “We don’t carry these just to look tough.”

Meehan, who said he served in the Navy for four years, is doing his part to spread the idea. He started a Facebook page called “Operation Safeguard” that shares news about volunteers in other cities, helps coordinate volunteer groups and encourages others to show up.

Similar guard initiatives have formed outside of military recruitment stations nationwide, including locations in Scranton, Pennsylvania and Monroe, North Carolina. In Cleburne, Texas, U.S. Army veteran Terry Jackson and Jonathan Mccroskey took up a 24-hour watch in front of a recruiting center.

“The recruiters aren’t allowed to protect themselves with guns inside,” Mccroskey said. “So we are going to do that out here for them.”

Governors in seven states – Florida, Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas and Wisconsin – have since ordered that their guardsman be armed. Kansas Republican Senator Jerry Moran announced Monday that he plans to introduce legislation to ban the gun-free zones at recruitment centers and U.S. military bases, according to the Wichita Eagle.

Although these guard initiatives have received a surge of community support across the country for their efforts, some residents are still a bit unnerved seeing armed groups with guns outside of recruiting locations growing in numbers.

Back in Georgia, however, Meehan said the group has received a warm reception, especially from service members and some police. One passerby stopped his car to snap a photo Tuesday afternoon.

“Y’all look all gangsta,” he said before driving off.

That’s not exactly the image they’re going for, Meehan said.

“We don’t want people to think we’re a militia,” he said. “We’re just concerned citizens out here doing what concerned citizens should do.”

This story was reported by CNHI Georgia statehouse reporter Jill Nolin and Cleburne (Texas) Times-Review reporter Jessica Pounds.