Thursday, June 30, 2011

That'll teach him to call the cops next time.

Apparently this guy had some armed goblins bust up into his house, actually bust caps at him, and he repelled boarders with his shotgun.

When the cops finally arrived at the scene, what did they do? Ticketed him for discharging a firearm inside city limits, since
"there is no self-defense exception in Garner’s gun ordinance. Only a law enforcement officer may fire a weapon within town limits according to the local code."
You have got to be kidding me.

Well, they don't call North Carolina "The California of the South" for nothing...

(H/T to Borepatch.)

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Carpetbaggers and scalawags...

AT

TheRock said...

NC has more weird ass gun laws than most anti-gun states; I guess we can thank Jim Crow for that....

Brian said...

The article says that the homeowner was an excop but not which agency. I am thinking there is some history perhaps.

If not this is Wake county which is just a pustule of left wing crap (I am looking at you city of Cary).

By the way I am also an excop from here in NC and our town also did not have a self defense exception. We had several self-defense shootings and it never once occured to us to charge the homeowner.

Anonymous said...

Can you seek a jury trial on an ordinance violation in Norf Cackalacky? That certainly seems to be the optimal legal motion.

Shootin' Buddy

TJIC said...

This is why I yell "rope" all the time and not "bullets".

I want to make sure that after we string up a bunch of cops, representatives, and senators, that we don't get busted for illegal discharge.

Anonymous said...

I thought NC was red-neck country -- what happened to them?

Josh Kruschke said...

This didn't end as badly as I thought it was going to.

But still idiotise for the win.

Josh

Tam said...

Anon,

Winston-Salem, Raleigh-Durham, and Ashville.

atlharp said...

Well I have to say I will stick up for my state. We are making progress here, we just passed Castle Doctrine and have other bits of legislation coming down the pipe in the next session. I do not agree with this, but not every section of my state is like this. Yes, much progress needs to be made, but we are making inroads here. For all the pissing and moaning at least the 4th amendment still applies here....

Aaron said...

It will be interesting to see if this goes forward wjhat the NC courts will do.

A lot of Michigan municipalities have similar ordinances to this one (indeed, you'll note most municipalities are lazy and just adopt from a standard code of ordinances).

While the ordinances do not specify an exception for self-defense, the courts have read one in.

Of course, you get the joy of proving you acted in self defense over the violation of a municipal ordinance of all things but at least the option is there.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... Anybody know what the law is in Indy?
Do you get charged if you pop a goblin on the Monon? (After July 1st, of course.)

Odysseus said...

Because the police couldn't catch the home invaders(prowler makes it sound less threatening), they ticket the victim. No one can accuse Garner PD of coming back empty handed.

Tam said...

Anon 10:21,

Here's the relevant section of the municipal code: "Sec. 451-2. Firearms generally. (a) Within the police special service district, it shall be unlawful for any person to fire off, shoot at another person or otherwise use any dangerous weapon for any purpose other than in defense of his life or the life of another person, or the protection of his property or property entrusted to him by another person, or for practice at a range under the supervision and operation of a governmental entity, or without the prior written approval of the department of public safety."

Craig said...

Tam said: "the relevant section of the municipal code: "Sec. 451-2. Firearms generally. (a) Within the police special service district, it shall be unlawful for any person to fire off, shoot at another person or otherwise use any dangerous weapon for any purpose other than in defense of his life or the life of another person, or the protection of his property or property entrusted to him by another person, or for practice at a range under the supervision and operation of a governmental entity, or without the prior written approval of the department of public safety."

Whoa, wait.... does this mean that the Garner cops just don't know how to READ?!?

Tam said...

Craig,

I was replying to "Anon 10:21" who asked what the law was in Indy.

Keads said...

Luckily for us that are from Winston-Salem, Mayberry is close by to nullify the effect.

Robert said...

"Winston-Salem, Raleigh-Durham, and Ashville."

That's AshEville, thanks.

And they only have about 60K living here, and not all of them are dimwits. We finally did get GOP control of the state gov except for the governors office. Give us a little time to fix things, OK?

Anonymous said...

Tam - Well, they don't call North Carolina "The California of the South" for nothing...


HEY!

Oh...

(shuffles off, hiding face in embarrassment)

Sean D Sorrentino said...

UPDATE: I just got out of a meeting with the Town Manager. There is an exception for self defense. I have posted an update on my post. There is more going on here, plus the reporter was just plain WRONG! I have already spoken to another reporter from the same station, and I expect a retraction soon.

atlharp said...

Tam, see you can use firearm in self-defense, but unfortunately you cannot wear white after Labor Day.

cj said...

At the moment, the news story claims that 1) he wasn't defending his own property (as permitted in the clause), and 2) there's no evidence anyone shot at or threatened him...in which case getting a small 'discharging a firearm' charge might be generous. More remains to be seen I think.

Sean D Sorrentino said...

NBC17 updated the story without giving a correction. You can read my original post, complete with all my updates here.

http://ncguns.blogspot.com/2011/06/town-of-garner-nc-says-no-to-self.html

Jake (formerly Riposte3) said...

"the reporter was just plain WRONG!"

Why am I not surprised?

In fact, I think it was our gracious host (in comments on another blog) who pointed out the phenomenon of seeing the media talking out their a$$es on a subject we know about yet still trusting them to get it right on subjects we don't know about. I can't remember now which blog it was or what the phenomenon was called, but I guess it has struck again.

Anonymous said...

Gell-Mann effect. Being knowledgeable about nuclear energy and firearms were the initial seeds of my skepticism of the average journalist.

Jake (formerly Riposte3) said...

Anonymous @ 1825: Thanks!

My skepticism was solidified with the coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings. I was in a position to know for sure that they were making s#!t up just to fill airtime.

Anonymous said...

There was a time when we realized that not every violation of every law required a citation/prosecution. Alas, it is now hard to justify using actual discrimination (telling like things apart) lest ye be accused of the bad sort of discrimination.

Anonymous said...

"Winston-Salem, Raleigh-Durham, and Ashville."

Don't forget Chapel Hill! Ugh...