Posted on 02/28/2008 2:40:27 PM PST by VeniVidiVici
MARION COUNTY, Fla. -- A Marion County man who opened fire on his wife bought the shotgun used in the crime just hours earlier at a nearby Wal-Mart. He didn't have to wait to get the gun. He passed a mandatory background check in the store and walked right out with it.
The man then went back into the store and bought some shotgun shells. Detectives said he then went home and murdered his wife.
Cheryl Schleher heard a knock at the door Monday night around 11 o'clock. It was her neighbor, Johnny High.
"My husband went out there and he asked my husband if he had a shotgun," she said.
High left Schleher's home empty-handed. Tuesday morning, deputies said he came to the Wal-Mart on State Road 200. He bought a shotgun, some shells and took them home, where he opened fire on his wife, Kimberly.
"We have witnesses that actually watched her run from the house and watched him chasing after her and he shot her in the yard [in the back]," said Sgt. Brian Spivey, Marion County Sheriff's Office.
Kimberly High died in her backyard. Deputies said her husband then went inside their trailer home and shot himself in the chest. The first officers on the scene said High was still conscious when they got there and he confessed.
Schleher said the couple was getting a divorce. She said Johnny looked liked he had been crying the night he came to her house. She didn't know what he was about to do. Just the same, she wishes she had warned Kimberly.
"When my husband told, told me, I said, 'We need to tell Kimmy, though. I don't know. She was a good friend," she said.
The sheriff's office said Johnny High is in critical condition at Orlando Regional Medical Center. The Highs have two children, four and seven years old. They were not home when their mother was killed. They are now with their grandparents.
In Florida, there is a three-day waiting period for handguns, but there is no waiting period for long guns. In addition, background checks are only required at federally-licensed gun stores. People buying firearms at gun shows and person to person are not subject to background checks.
I did. Get right with God now!;)
FREEP THIS POLL ***PING!*** FRmail me if you want to be added or removed from the Fearless Poll-Freeping Freepers Ping list. And be sure to ping me to any polls that need Freepin', if I miss them. (looks like a medium volume list) (gordongekko909, founder of the pinglist, stays on the list until his ghost signs up for the list)
Why would they bring Johnny High to an Orlando hospital? There are three in Marion County. Even Shands at UF in Gainesville is closer than Orlando.
LOL I pray each day that my previous transgressions have been forgiven, oh BTW my choir will be on ISPN network Sunday night and Monday night. I will be absent because of my son and family coming back from Korea Sat night, my choir director is a jewel and no one can match him. I love him like a son, he is my hero.
Yeah, I'd say this article was more biased than most I read on this site. Maybe it was outsourced to Zimbabwe.
I think the whole purpose of the “waiting period” on guns, is for the reason of not having one readily available to act out like this man did, in heat of passion, etc.
True, he could have used another form of weaponry, but what if he didn’t want to get his hands dirty? What if he was only able to bring himself to use a gun? Then if he had to wait, he may have thought about his intentions and changed his mind.
Maybe...just maybe.
Exactly.
“they pulled the poll.”
Nope. I just voted. Try again.
Flat out lie! ONLY person to person sales are exempt from background check.
FREEP the poll on the site! PLEASE, I’m a Floridian and we need all the help we can get.
Yes... 261... 45%
No... 324 ...55%
Thanks!
Let’s keep it going.
Stupid liberals. If he’d bought a chain saw and cut her into pieces, would this story even have made the news?
It is the decision of the people on board and where they believe they can get appropriate treatment fast without further wasted time for transfers.
I remember that!!
If High survives, he will sue Wal-Mart for selling him the gun (a hundred lawyers will insist upon it). In Orlando he may just win.
Generally, people who commit crimes have greater advance notice of their intention than do those who would have to defend themselves against them.
Someone isn't apt to go out, buy a gun, and then use it, all "in the heat of passion", unless there's a gun for sale 15 seconds from where he happens to be and the seller has no objection to selling to someone who's obviously steamed. How often is somebody going to be sufficiently steamed to go through the trouble of buying a gun and remain sufficiently steamed long enough to kill someone with it, and yet be sufficiently under control that they'll never again get steamed at any time more than 24/48/72/whatever hours later?
How does that compare to number of people were declared eligible to purchase firearms, posthumously?
With the right Orlando lawyer he'll claim that Wal-Mart sold him a defective product - as he wasn't killed when he shot himself in the chest.
I guess it would have been OK if he’d undergone the 3 day wait, and then killed her. Or, frustrated in his attempt to buy a gun at Wally World, bought and ax and gave her forty whacks instead.
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