Of course, since this guy is one of the anointed, he gets off with a wrist-slap anyway. No such luck for us commoners.
Posted on 06/20/2002 11:07:13 AM PDT by Henrietta
NEWTON — District Attorney David Flaherty Jr. says he won’t take any action against Assistant District Attorney Jason Parker for accidentally firing his pistol in his office at the Catawba County Justice Center on Friday morning beyond making him pay for a broken window.
Parker, a candidate for district court judge, and Sean McGinnis, another assistant district attorney, were at the county firing range Friday morning brushing up on shooting skills, according to Flaherty. When they returned to Parker’s office around 8 a.m., Parker’s .380 semi-automatic accidentally discharged, according to Maj. Coy Reid of the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office.
The bullet put a hole in a window overlooking the smoking area in front of the Justice Center. No one was injured.
“I am disappointed in him (Parker),” Flaherty said. “He is a friend and a good district attorney. I know he reported it immediately to those who were supposed to be made aware of the incident.”
Flaherty said he put a note in Parker’s personnel file, but no charges would be filed.
“The only thing I would consider charging Parker with is reckless endangerment, but the bullet traveled out the window, not into the building iteslf,” said Flaherty. “I will make him pay for the plate glass window, however.”
Flaherty, district attorney for the 25th Prosecutorial District, said he got a phone call from Parker around 8:15 a.m. on Friday saying that he accidentally fired a pistol in the office that was once used by Flaherty.
Reid said the handgun had a mechanical malfunction with the ejector slide.
Sheriff David Huffman said Parker turned the handgun over to authorities and asked that it be destroyed by the State Bureau of Investigation.
“I was on vacation when it happened, but I think that Parker was so shaken by the incident that he just wanted to get it out of his sight altogether,” he said.
When someone asks to have a gun destroyed, the SBI checks the serial number to verify the history of the gun before destroying it.
Huffman said his department will also run a check on the weapon today.
Huffman said he assumed the pistol had been registered to Parker, but he was not sure.
“North Carolina law does not require a handgun to be registered with the state,” said Huffman. “When you purchase a handgun, you must first fill out a permit to purchase, which asks for all the pertinent information, such as where you live, why you need the gun, etc. This is essentially the same information that registering a handgun would provide.”
When asked about the legality of carrying a handgun into the courthouse, Flaherty said he saw no problem with it.
“We are law enforcement officers, and there is no problem with my assistants or me carrying guns,” said Flaherty. “I carry one myself occasionally, although it is not concealed.”
John Bason, public information officer for the state Attorney General’s Office, disagrees with Flaherty’s assessment of the law.
“Bottom line is, district attorneys or their assistants are not law enforcement officers.
Therefore, they must abide by the same statutes that apply to anyone else who is not a sworn officer of the law,” said Bason.
Huffman agreed.
“I did not know that DA’s were considered law enforcement officers. To be in law enforcement, you have to go to law enforcement school, even though I could swear you in right now.”
Huffman said he has had several attorneys in the past request permission to bring a firearm into the courthouse for protection, but that the sheriff’s office would assign an extra deputy instead.
Retired Superior Court Judge Oliver Noble said it was unwise and improper for Parker to bring a gun into the courthouse.
“I have never seen him with a gun,” said Noble. “I don’t know if that’s against the law or not, and I have never seen anyone prosecuted for this. However, I have never heard of a law allowing a gun in a state office. If I were to guess, I would say there isn’t.”
As far as any charges that could have been filed, Huffman said that you have to look at each situation differently.
“We treated this as if it was an accident,” said Huffman. “We don’t condone bringing handguns into the courthouse by district attorneys. However, nobody was hurt, and the gun malfunctioned. You have to have some breathing room regarding the law. However, it is possible that I would go back and look at the situation further.”
• Reach Kim Gilliland at 322-4510, Ext. 249, or rgilliland@hickoryrecord.com.
In North Carolina that is less of an issue. We have quite a few 'conservative' democrats in NC. Many were known as 'Dixiecrats' in times gone by.
Your typical NC conservative Dem would vote straight D on county/state offices then pull the lever for Jesse Helms and Reagan in National races. They will often go out of their way to screw up D primaries.
I would be curious if these guys support an armed citizen.
Nah, most serious 380's are "real" guns and not "saturday night specials". And the fact the the mechanism is mostly blowback has little or nothing to do with accidental discharges - the gun's lockup at firing moment is something else than the firing mechanism :).
380's are mostly pure blowbacks - that is, the slide isn't locked at the moment of firing. Mostly, too, they're DA on the first shot and the rest SA. You're meant to carry them with hammer down and SAFETY ON. On my Astra Constable, that means locked trigger, hammer, and firing pin.
Ballistically, a hot 380 round is not too different from a 38spc, and the guns tend to be a bit more concealable.
Well, you go right ahead and keep your weapon in a functionally unloaded condition (round not chambered) if that's what you're comfortable doing. What you are ignoring, however, is the very great chance you will be stressed if you wait to chamber a round when actually faced with a threat. That's when you'll likely cause a feeding malfunction and have to clear the gun before being able to chamber a round and be prepared to fire.
Work on your handling skills, learn your weapon and apply the four rules of safe gun use. The Ass't DA in this situation obviously violated all four rules. The gun wasn't at fault, he was IMHO.
It is these irresponsible gun owners that give us responsible gun owners a bad name. What a nerd he is.
Reid said the handgun had a mechanical malfunction with the ejector slide.There's something fishy here. Most people have broken firearms fixed, not destroyed. I wonder what that trace turns up. (And if that info will be made public!)Sheriff David Huffman said Parker turned the handgun over to authorities and asked that it be destroyed by the State Bureau of Investigation.
“I was on vacation when it happened, but I think that Parker was so shaken by the incident that he just wanted to get it out of his sight altogether,” he said.
When someone asks to have a gun destroyed, the SBI checks the serial number to verify the history of the gun before destroying it.
First shot means nothing. First hit means something :).
I don't know the P90, but I don't think it would be prone to a discharge if dropped. Most modern guns are protected against that sort of thing. One of my guns functions in the way you describe (a Steyr GB), and while it will go BOOM on a pulled trigger - which will have to be a trigger pull that cocks the hammer, btw - it will not discharge on being dropped. That is because the firing pin is protected from moving UNLESS the trigger is also being pulled.
Crush the the BAD pistol, that's the solution!
(I wish I had a dollar for every time a BAD pistol with a broken ejector just UP AND SHOT ITSELF OUT A WINDOW! Geez, if it's happened to me once, it's happened a hundred time.)
Rule one firearms do not go off all by themselves. I am willing to bet my house and my boat that I can lay a firearm on a kitchen table with a round in the chamber and it will not go off unless someone touches it. Any takers at even money? It would be nice to pay off my mortgage and get a long range fast trawler.
Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown
The idiot can not even make up a believable lie.
Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown
If this idiot had bought a .38 revolver instead of an auto, I'll be this would not have happened. Simple guns for simple minds, I say. Me included.)
Of course, since this guy is one of the anointed, he gets off with a wrist-slap anyway. No such luck for us commoners.
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