Lawful South Carolina Gun Owner Goes to Jail

Local news reports

The two repo men told deputies they made contact with Smith so she could get her personal items out of the car. They said she became angry, grabbed a bat, chased them into the road and threatened to shoot them. She grabbed the keys out of their tow truck, the report states, and demanded they leave her vehicle alone “or else.”

Smith chased them a second time before she tried to turn on their tow truck and lower her car off a wrecker, but couldn’t, the report states. Smith went into her house and retrieved a revolver, which she pointed at them. She put the gun to one man’s head and told him he had five seconds to lower the car off the wrecker, the report states. The repo men released the car and left.

Deputies were unable to find Smith’s car. She told them she drove it to a “safe location” so that it would not be repossessed. She added that she doesn’t own a gun, but she does own a bat that she keeps in her bedroom.

Deputies arrested Smith, charging her with two counts of third-degree assault and battery. She was released from jail on a personal recognizance bond. Court records show she has no prior criminal history.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/01/31/3238004/gun-wielding-rock-hill-woman-to.html#storylink=cpy

South Carolina Accused Gun Dealer Said He 'didn't want government in his business'

Local news reports

A former corrections officer from Lexington County faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine after pleading guilty to federal firearms charges.

William Andrew Cox, 56, pleaded guilty to dealing in firearms without a license in federal court in Columbia. Fox was a former officer with the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

Prosecutors say Cox bought guns from several area gun stores.  Two of those weapons were recovered after an arrest in the federal roundup of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang.  Prosecutors say a defendant in the Hells Angels case bought two pistols from Cox through a web site he managed called Armslist.com. Within three weeks of their purchase, prosecutors say the guns were sold to members of the Hells Angels who then sold them to law enforcement agents.

ATF records completed with gun sales shows between March 2009 and August of 2012, Cox bought more than 150 guns on 31 different occasions. Cox admitted this to investigators.

When asked why he didn't get a license to sell the guns, prosecutors said Cox told them he "didn't want the government in his business."

South Carolina Formerly Lawful Gun Owner Gets a Year for Accidentally Killing his Friend

Local news reports

A South Carolina man now knows he will spend a year in prison for accidentally shooting his friend on Christmas Day of 2011. 

According to the Island Packet, 33 year old Andrew Bogart pleaded guilty last month to involuntary manslaughter. 

Sheriff's deputies say Bogart loaded his pistol on Christmas day of 2011 and then began passing it around to his friends. But then the gun fired while Bogart was aiming it at 25 year old Adrian Hilliard. Hilliard was struck in the head and killed.

Bogart ran away before deputies arrived to make the arrest.

South Carolina Bumbling Lawful Gun Owner Injures Himself and his Brother

Local news reports

An off-duty North Charleston firefighter and his brother were injured in an accidental shooting Saturday night, according to a spokesman with Berkeley County Sheriff's Office.

Investigators say the incident happened around 7 p.m. in the 300 block of Cohen Circle in Ladson.

Authorities say one of the brothers was clearing a weapon when the gun accidentally went off and struck him in the hand. Deputies say it went through the victim's hand and stuck the other brother in the leg.

Officials say the victim with the bullet wound to the leg underwent surgery and is in serious condition.

South Carolina Lawful Gun Owner in Assisted Living Center Shoots Up the Place and Gets Arrested

Stanley Crosby

Local news reports

A resident of a South Carolina assisted living center is staying in jail after his arrest for firing his gun while at the facility and then shooting at arriving law officers.

The State Law Enforcement Division has been asked to investigate the shootout Saturday in Orangeburg. The agency is involved because officers returned fire before capturing 65-year-old Stanley Crosby.

It’s not known if Crosby is represented by an attorney because jail officials did not answer a call Sunday. A telephone number listed to Crosby was disconnected.

Crosby faces seven counts of attempted murder after shots were fired at the residential care facility and at arriving police.

At least 11 residents and employees of the home were evacuated along with residents of surrounding houses. No injuries were reported.

South Carolina Gun Owner To Be Charged for Accidental Shooting with his Gun - Second Offense (that we know about)

Local news reports

Investigators with the Sumter County Sheriff's Office expect to file charges in the case of a 14-year-old boy shot in the leg Tuesday.

Charges won't be filed against another teen who accidentally fired the weapon while "playing" with it. But the owner of the handgun could face a charge of unlawful neglect of a child for failing to secure the gun where the children couldn't get access to it.

Emergency responders were called to the home about 2:30 p.m. after a 15-year-old boy reportedly shot the younger boy in the thigh. He reportedly got the weapon from a neighboring home and went to show it to a friend when the gun discharged.

"This happened at the home next door to where the gun was kept," said Lt. Robert Burnish with the sheriff's office investigations division. "He got the gun and was showing it off, and unfortunately it was loaded and went off."

The gun reportedly came from the same address where another child was shot last year. On July 2, 2012, a 4-year-old boy was transported from a home on Wrangler Trail to Palmetto Health Richland after he apparently picked up an unsecured handgun and shot himself in the foot.

No adults were present when the latest shooting occurred. The victim was transported by EMS to Tuomey Regional Medical Center for treatment, and the other teen was taken in for questioning by deputies, who eventually determined the shooting was accidental. The gun was recovered from a wooded area behind the home where the boy reportedly threw it after the shooting.

One strike you're out would have prevented this one. The gun-rights fanatics tell us that when people have accidents with guns they learn their lesson and are more careful afterwards.  My theory is the opposite.  I say people who demonstrate the inability to safely manage their guns are likely to be repeat offenders. This case supports my theory.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/11/30/3129485/sumter-gun-owner-may-be-charged.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/11/30/3129485/sumter-gun-owner-may-be-charged.html#storylink=cpy

South Carolina Man Charged in Accidental Shooting Death

Local news reports

The S.C. Department of Natural Resources filed charges against Christopher Merck in connection to a hunting accident Nov. 1 in Abbeville County that resulted in the death of Bradford Phillip Todd.

DNR charged Merck, 53, with one count of criminal negligent use of firearms, death results, according to DNR Capt. Robert McCollough. 

The men did not know each other, McCollough said.

At the time, Abbeville County Coroner Ronnie Ashley ruled the death accidental.

One of the hunters was sitting in a tree stand, fired a shot and struck the victim, who was on the ground, McCullough reported earlier.

McCollough noted the bullet, which struck the victim in the back, was fired from a .300-caliber Winchester Magnum hunting rifle. 

You know what happens next, right? The lawyers plea bargain it down to a mere slap on the wrist.  Next year he'll be out there shooting wildly in the woods again.

South Carolina Domestic Incident - 6 Dead

Local news reports

Six people have been found dead in a South Carolina home following an apparent domestic dispute.

Greenwood County Sheriff's Office spokesman John Long told The Associated Press late Tuesday that the dead include four adults and two children. He said the bodies were discovered by a SWAT team that entered the house "after several unsuccessful attempts to make contact" with someone inside.

Long says officers first went to the home in the city of Greenwood after receiving a call from a man who said he was thinking about hurting himself. He says while police were on their way, one of the man's neighbors called 911 saying children from that address had arrived at her house and told her a shot had been fired.

Long says a preliminary investigation indicates the shootings were "a domestic-related incident."

Accidental Shooting at Voorhees College South Carolina

Local news reports

A student at Voorhees College was shot Monday afternoon according to a statement on Voorhees College Facebook page. 

According to the post, at approximately 3:07 pm on Monday, October 21, in the Dawson Health and Human resources center on campus an accidential shooting occurred. 

While playing basketball in the gym, a gun dropped out of a student's pocket and a bullet discharged. 

The bullet struck , 21-year-old student Jasmine Parker-Grant, a senior from Nashville, in the chest area. The student, the statement goes on to say, is receiving medical treatment for her gunshot at the Regional Medical Center in Orangeburg. 

President Sellers said in the statement, "It should be noted that this was an accidental shooting, but Voorhees College does not tolerate any weapons on our campus." 

The statement goes on to say that there is a person of interest and more information will be provided as it becomes available.

South Carolina Gun Owner Shoots and Kills an Innocent Bystander and Blames the "Bad Guys" He Was Aiming At

The State

Shannon Scott argues he should not be prosecuted for shooting and killing an unarmed Keenan High School basketball player.

In his Stand Your Ground argument in a Richland County courtroom this week, Scott and his attorney, Todd Rutherford, said Scott fired his weapon from his front yard to protect his daughter, who was being chased by people trying to hurt her.

ead more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/08/16/2924473/is-shooting-a-bystander-in-south.html#storylink=cpy

At time of the shooting, about 1:30 a.m., Scott was in fear of his life, and he was the only one who could take action against a carload of menacing teen “women thugs” who had just followed his daughter and her girlfriends home on the night of April 17, 2010, Rutherford said.

On their way home, his daughter telephoned Scott to tell him they were being followed. He met them outside and told them to go and lie down on the kitchen floor while he went outside with a pistol.

It is unreasonable to expect that Scott is required “to go back into his house, in his castle ... and hope that the cavalry (police) are going to come ... . All that matters is that Mr. Scott felt his life was in jeopardy. We know that because everyone there felt their lives were in jeopardy,” Rutherford said.

Isn't this the kind of situation the gun-rights fanatics say never ever happens. According to them, the police often shoot innocent people but civilian gun owners never do.

Well, there goes another well-worn pro-gun lie.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/08/16/2924473/is-shooting-a-bystander-in-south.html#storylink=cpy

South Carolina Can't Keep Up with the Concealed Carry Permit Applications

wistv.com - Columbia, South Carolina |

Nikki Haley, Governor of South Carolina, Visits a Gun Manufacturer

Since when is a few thousand views called going viral?  It's not. But in the world of the gun-rights fanatic, where they twist everything they can to aggrandize guns and their popularity, calling a pro-gun video viral when it's not is SOP.

South Carolina Domestic Violence Leads to Accidental Shooting

Greer-Taylor's Patch

According to the incident report, the woman said that the man had become angry because she would not go and cash a child support payment she had received in the mail. The man left the home, but returned several hours later and was intoxicated, the report said.

Upon his return, he began packing a bag to leave the home. While packing, he picked up the woman's handgun and placed it in the bag, she told police. She removed the gun from the bag and was going outside to secure the gun in her car when he grabbed her by the back of her shirt and tried to pull the gun from her hand. As the two struggled, a witness said that the gun went off.
Police have determined that the shooting was accidental.

A warrant was issued for the man for criminal domestic violence — first offense.

I suppose these folks are lawful gun owners? And the gun-rights fanatics will insist that's right and good.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

South Carolina Man Arrested for Son's Accidental Shooting Death

Local news reports

Friends and loved ones gathered at a home on Daisy Lane in Conway on Thursday afternoon to lend support to the family of a 2-year-old boy who died on Christmas Day.

The boy’s father, Rondell Smith, paced in circles in front of his mother-in-law’s home, tears streaming down his face, saying over and over, “My son is gone. My son is gone.”
He was inconsolable by family. 

“I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. … I miss his voice. I hear him calling me. I held him close,” Smith said. “Why couldn’t it be me?”

Nearly 48 hours prior, 2-year-old Sincere Smith got hold of his father’s gun that was sitting on a table and shot himself. He died en route to Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. A senseless accident, the boy’s family said.

Smith, 30, was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter and released from jail Wednesday on a $500 bond. He said no punishment by the law would suffice.

“Going to jail ain’t even enough,” he said. “Whatever’s coming to me is coming to me.”

Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2012/12/27/3241835/father-charged-in-christmas-shooting.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2012/12/27/3241835/father-charged-in-christmas-shooting.html#storylink=cpy

Why do you think there's such a disparity in the way these cases are handled? Sometimes the responsible gun owner is arrested immediately, other times it takes a month for the arrest and still other times no one is ever held accountable.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

South Carolina Accidental Shooting - No Charges

Local news reports

After deputies arrived, they learned that 51-year-old Wesley O’Shield was cleaning a .32-caliber revolver when the weapon accidentally discharged, shooting him in a finger on his right hand. The bullet then struck his son-in-law, 30-year-old Michael Wingo, in the abdomen, according to the statement.

As a precaution, Wingo was transported by helicopter to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, though deputies did not think his injuries were life-threatening. O’Shield was taken to the hospital by a private vehicle.

No charges will be filed in the incident, according to the sheriff’s office.

Bumbling idiots like this should never be allowed near firearms again. There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of negligence.  How stupid do you have to be to clean a gun that's still loaded?

Do you think this is the first "accident" he's ever had?  I doubt that very much.

When these things become a matter of public record, one strike you're out should apply.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

Another Gun Range Mishap - One Dead in South Carolina

SF Gate reports

Authorities say a 62-year-old man has died after accidentally shooting himself at a West Columbia shooting range.

Lexington County Coroner Harry Harman said Jerry Marsh III of Columbia was taking his .40-caliber Glock semi-automatic handgun apart around 7 p.m. Thursday at Shooter's Choice when it fired, striking him in the chest.

Authorities say Marsh died a short time later at the hospital.

First of all, the gun did not fire. "When it fired" is misleading. The man was so unsafe in the handling of his gun that it's frightening. Forgetting there's a round in the chamber is bad enough, but then he pointed the gun at his chest and pulled the trigger, these are essentially the mistakes he made.  And he paid the ultimate price.

Does anyone really believe these were his first violations of safety rules ever?  I don't.  That's why taking gun misuse more seriously is so important.  One strike you're out would weed out many of these dangerous people and save lives, sometimes their own.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Accidental Shootings in South Carolina - Three of Them - Zero Arrests

Local news reports

Two people accidentally shot themselves in southern Beaufort County Saturday, while a third shot a hole in the floor of a Bluffton business Sunday, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies responded to a report of a shooting at Simmons Fish Camp on Hilton Head Island at 3 a.m. Saturday, where a man had allegedly shot himself in the calf. 

On Saturday evening, a 70-year-old man shot himself in the left hand while cleaning a .22-caliber revolver at his Sun City home. His wife reported the incident. The injured man's wife told deputies he had said the revolver was jammed before she heard a loud bang; deputies saw the spent cartridge was still lodged in the gun and could not be removed, the report said. 

Rounding out the weekend of accidental shootings, a manager at Montana's Grizzly Bar on Kitties Landing Road in Bluffton reported a customer had shot a hole in the floor at about 12:30 a.m. on Sunday. According to the report, the customer had reached in his pocket to pay and accidentally discharged a gun. No one was injured and the customer left before the manager could get any information.

In spite of the pro-gun insistence that gun negligence is rare, the news media have begun reporting these incidents like they report Chicago shootings, lumping them altogether.

The problem is that these three negligent gun owners were probably not making their first mistake ever, and thanks to the nonchalance with which these acts are treated, they won't be the last either.

There is a solution.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

South Carolina Gun Owner Shoots Neighbor Through the Wall

Local news reports

An 18-year-old Florence man was arrested Monday morning after he fired a shotgun in his apartment, injuring a neighbor on the other side of the wall.

Fabian Frost, 18, of 304 Royal St., is charged with discharging a firearm into a dwelling and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature in connection with an incident that happened about 7:30 a.m. Monday, Florence Police Maj. Carlos Raines said.

It appears Frost accidentally fired the shotgun, but the bullet went through the wall of the apartment and pellets from the ammunition struck a neighbor who was lying on a couch on the other side of the wall, Raines said.

I'm sure his race had nothing to do with the arrest, not in South Carolina.

South Carolina Supreme Court To Make Gun-Rights Decisions

Islandpacket.com reports on some of the controversial decisions facing the South Carolina Supreme Court.

Why they are controversial or even being considered is beyond me.  Of the three examples given, one is a shooting after the fact, Jerome Ersland style, or even worse.  The other two are shootings in the back, for crying out loud.

The fact that gun-rights folks argue these types of incidents trying to justify them indicates that they aren't interested in the truth or what's right.  They're only interested in expanding and extending gun rights.

The castle doctrine they want would allow for anyone who feels threatened to shoot and kill. Do they really think that will be used properly more times than it will be abused?  I certainly don't. And I don't think they believe that either.  I think they don't care how often it would be abused.  They just want the rights expanded, regardless of the cost. 

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

South Carolina Restaurant Shooting - 1 Dead, 1 Arrested

The Sacramento Bee reports

Twenty-three-year-old Terrell Lamont Bethel is charged with seven counts of attempted murder, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, firing a gun into an occupied place, possession of drugs and failure to stop for police.

Twenty-year-old Steve McCoy of Elgin was killed in the Sept. 15 shooting and two other people were injured. 

Police say Bethel was part of a group that became involved in an argument at the restaurant and several people drew guns. Police spokeswoman Jennifer Timmons says investigators do not think Bethel fired the shot that killed McCoy.

Officers are looking for a second suspect.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/25/4851959/man-arrested-in-columbia-restaurant.html#storylink=cpy

When I read the story I thought I'd focus on the absence of a "felon in possession of a firearm" charge and point out that these guys in the restaurant who all drew their guns and had a shootout over an argument were probably good ole boy lawful gun owners, NRA members and concealed carry permit holders.

Then I saw his picture.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.