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 reality, the first sign of a problem is often a knife stuck in your side or a bat from behind which breaks one of your arms.
What then?
I recently investigated a "shots fired" call at a residence in my jurisdiction. In this case, the elderly gentleman had an older (1932 I think) Colt .32 semi-auto pistol that he had carried for years (he is a local merchant and has a permit). He claimed to have removed the gun, in its "inside the pants holster" and laid it on his kitchen table, where it suddenly just discharged hitting his kitchen wall. No injuries, just a shook up citizen. I took the weapon to our alleged state firearms "expert" where he examined the gun and declared the citizen a liar and told me that I should press charges. My Chief and I agreed that it was most unlikely that this particular citizen would do anything so stupid, so, the Chief and I did a little test at our range. I repeated the claims of the citizen, and lo and behold, after about a minute of just sitting on the shooting bench, the damn thing just went off. I took it to a local gunsmith, who, after carefully examining the action determined that there was a notch worn on the striker and when laid down at a certain angle (such as when still in the holster with the belt clip down), gravity pulled the retainer into the notch and caused a discharge. (He went into great detail, about worn parts etc.) When I told the state "expert" about it he literally laughed in my face and declared that the gunsmith was a liar too! Needless to say, the citizen was more than slightly unnerved about his "carry" weapon discharging of its own volition. The Chief and I have lost all faith in our alleged expert, and the citizen has since retired the little pocket piece to his collection and now carries a nice little Taurus Millinium PT-145 in .45ACP.
Just remember, KAKA DOES occur!
Semper Fi
Then carry a ruger or a taurus doulbe action revolver with transfer bar safety . Ready to fire at ANY time.
Broken ejector slides do not cause a gun to "accidentally" fire. The only thing that causes a gun to fire is a person with his or her finger on the trigger.
Or maybe it will be your head rolling down the street and some dude in a robe wiping off his damascus steel scimitar. There's only so much a man can plan for when he just needs to go to the post office sometime today and then mow his lawn.
Parker’s .380 semi-automatic accidentally discharged
Note that the gun is the subject of this sentence, when in reality, Mr. Parker caused the discharge.
The bullet put a hole in a window...
Note that Mr. Parker put a hole in the wondow, but the story makes the bullet the subject.
“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.
If it had been an ordinary citizen, it would have been: "the perpetrator shot out the window."
Reid said the handgun had a mechanical malfunction with the ejector slide.
Bad Handgun!
Sheriff David Huffman said Parker turned the handgun over to authorities and asked that it be destroyed by the State Bureau of Investigation.
After all, if the handgun were an ordinary mechanical tool, but Parker were a dangerous fool, we'd destroy him, not the gun, right? Punish the gun for its wrongdoing. Put down that mad dog?
Ya got me there pardner! What a mental image! ROTFLMAO! You win! ;^)
It's possible they've revised the instructor curriculum. In the NRA Basic Pistol course I took, they taught hammer down on empty chamber for revolvers. I'd have to check if their companion textbook says the same thing. I figured they just kept the old method so that people who are not savy about such things as transfer bars wouldn't go putting a live round under the hammer of Grand-Dads Colt.
An excellent object lesson about maintaining firearms in good working order, especially with older guns that don't have the kind of redundant safeties that modern handguns usually have.
Whatever happened to the Western movies?
Actually, on a 1911, even if you were foolish enough to leave the thumb safety off, the grip safety and half-cock sere (and on newer ones like the Series II Kimbers, the trigger-actuated firing pin block as well) will prevent the sort of discharge you describe. Note: professional driver on closed course. Do not imitate!
Sure, for one static target. Those five rounds go away very quickly if you've ever been through a shoot house drill engaging multiple targets with recovery of missed shots and a failure-to-stop head-shot or two. Of course, if you're a lot better with a speed loader than I am, the point is moot. :-)
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