67 yr old Gunowner wins shootout w/ drug dealers

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Took place in Charleston, South Carolina....

They ALWAYS take all the guns. We had a case here in MD where some kid was playing with his father's revolver and shot himself in the leg. So, naturally, they confiscated all the father's guns. (Here in MD as well as many other places its illegal to make possible a minor getting hold of a gun). Though certainly the father was (legally) wrong in not locking up his guns and (morally) wrong for not teaching his son right, he has forever forfeited his right to own a gun.

And from what I understand its almost impossible to get 'em back.
 
As I read some of the responses I am relieved to see several others feel the same as I do. If I lived near him I would sure as heck loan him a gun with plenty of ammo. I can't believe the police left him defenseless at at time when retribution is a high probablity. I really don't think the police are going to leave an officer there to protect him. Maybe I am silly,but it seems to me if he ever needed a gun for protection, it is now:fire:
 
he has forever forfeited his right to own a gun.
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so this is a felony charge???

And from what I understand its almost impossible to get 'em back.
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On what grounds can they take them for good? without just compensation.



I think I would take them back (wouldn't have given them up in the first place. They need a warrant to come and take them) and promptly move from MD. (would never move there or even visit MD in the first place)
 
so this is a felony charge???
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Only a misdemeanor w/a $1,000 fine, but here in MD all handgun purchases must be approved by the State Police, so though technically he is legal to purchase somehow I bet somehow he gets the dreaded "DISAPPROVED".

Though methinks upon reflection maybe I overstated the case.:rolleyes:
 
Event took place in Charleston, SC.

SC's attorney general a while back declared open season on home invasion perps. He instructed state wide jurisdictions to not prosecute good guys involved in defending against home invasions.

BTW, a rash of home invasions in Charleston was the cause for declaring open season.
 
Agreed, pretty stupid of the police to take all of his guns... no call for that at all, unless they intend on letting the BG's take him out. I would think that he has local friends that would give him a loaner if asked. I would, he appears like a responsible gun owner/hunter to me.
 
ha ha ha... just noticed Bill Gates took out 2 badguys on his front lawn. :)

Wonder if the punks names were Torvalds and McNealy? :D
 
Quite frankly, I'm stunned this old man isn't facing some type of assualt or attempted murder charges. Were the perps shooting at HIM? How was his life immediately threatened in a manner that he couldn't have reacted to in any other way, such as moving to a rear room or calling police? He obviously was just ANGRY, and was taking his anger out with his shotgun.
But that's no grounds for use of deadly force.

So the lesson I learn from this is, if two people are in the street in front of my home, at 2 a.m., car doors open, and they're shooting at each other, I can shoot to kill them with my shotgun or rifle from an upstairs window? I don't think so....
 
His only problem is his mouth.

What the idiots were doing on his front lawn was endangering him and his family. You don't have to get out there in the dark and check to see where the shooter's sights are pointing to verify what is the exact level of danger to you and your family. Shooting in a populated area, with just a very few, tightly defined legal exceptions, is considered to be a potentially lethal activity, and he was justified in using deadly force to bring this dangerous activity to an end.
 
Were the perps shooting at HIM? How was his life immediately threatened in a manner that he couldn't have reacted to in any other way
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based on previous events...
She said that last year someone fired a shot through their living room. The bullet hole can be seen in the wall that faces the street. "The good Lord was with me that day because I had just moved my grandbaby from that couch," Yvonne Gates said. "She would have been killed because the bullet hit the couch."
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sounds justifiable to me.

Granted I'll agree he wasn't wise to spout off at the mouth about bringing body bags.
However that doesn't change the fact that the man's family had been and was in danger.
Go to a room in the back and call the police? And what, wait for a half hour while a stray bullet kills your wife or child??

As stated they were trespassing on his lawn.
Men on property firing guns = imminent threat to my family and me.
 
Police say they don't plan to press any charges against a 67-year-old...

This would never happen in California.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/6450684.htm

Posted on Sun, Aug. 03, 2003

Police say they don't plan to press any charges against a 67-year-old...
Associated Press

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Police say they don't plan to press any charges against a 67-year-old man who fired shots at people he said were drug dealers involved in a shoot-out in his front yard.

However, the final decision on whether to charge William Gates rests with local prosecutors, Charleston police Chief Reuben Greenberg said.

"We have no plans to arrest him," Greenberg said. "We can't see from where we sit where a crime's been committed. People have the right to provide for their safety, and we believe that is what he was doing."

Gates had told police about drug dealing in his neighborhood that often spilled over into his yard.

"I told the police, 'Bring the coroner and body bags the next time you come out here,' " he said. "Nobody is going to run me out of my home."

Gates was awakened by the sound of gunfire about 4:30 Friday morning. He stepped out onto his porch with his 12-gauge Browning automatic shotgun and fired three blasts at three men in his front yard.

Police say Gates hit two of them, and the third is thought to have been hit during the initial shootout. The men, Kevin Hazel, 27, Matez Hazel, 24, and Christopher Hampton, 22, were in intensive care recovering from their wounds.

Gates, a semiretired brick mason, said he was only protecting his wife and house. "I had had enough," he said. "If I have to go to jail, so be it."

Information from: The Post And Courier
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Wonderful! Maybe we should get his address and send him a box of shells, and a bottle of Clorox to wash down his section of sidewalk.

I just hope that he survives what the 'law enforcement' community will do to him.
 
Hopefully nothing... SC generally has a wonderful stance on people who use firearms to defend themselves and their property.
 
Pretty standard stuff. It's to prove who's shots hit/killed whom. That way you can eliminate gramps as the killer of all 3, who called in and made up a self-defense story after killing 3 kids walking through his yard.
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No offense, but anybody that can't figure out that a person could shoot the first one with a - let's say a Lorcin .380 - whack the next two with the shotgun, toss the Lorcin into the heap of carcasses; then call the police, and have them do their "standard stuff" i.e. clear all of the other guns in the home as not belonging to the fatal slug, has no business investigating crimes.

Taking all of his guns is just about taking his guns. No solid evidence would be obtained by taking any gun(s) other than the one(s) he admitted to firing, or the one(s) the police have reason to believe that he fired at the scumbags on his lawn.

Scumbags gunned down on the lawn. I love happy endings.
 
He needs to find a more effective load and or weaopn. This won't be the last time he will need it.
 
Folks I'm sorry but somebody reading some of these comments might actually take them seriously and get themselves in even worse trouble at the scene of shooting.

"They have no reason to take all my guns"- Yes they do, several posters have explained why.

"They need a warrant to take my guns"- No they don't.

"They wouldn't take my guns"- If thats the call by the on scene personnel yes they will, It's not up to you. Your options at that point are to stand there while they take them, fight them and go to jail for the night while they take them, or leave on a slab before they take them, your call.

Good example of why not to keep all your eggs in one basket nothing more nothing less... Don't make a bad situation worse by trying to play Johnnie Cochran when you don't even know the rules.
 
OK,

Listen, folks, things are way different in different states. I seriously doubt that this shooting, as reported, will result in any charges against Mr. Gates.
This is South Carolina, people. Same thing goes in Georgia except maybe in downtown Atlanta...maybe.


Hmmm. Taking ALL of a man's guns who has just had to use one in self defense in his own home is police SOP, huh? Even when 1) Two are shot with shotguns and he admits using a shotgun, and the other has a wound consistent with a 9mm and a 9mm is found in the yard?

What if ALL of the man's guns had been shotguns? Would the police still confiscate all of the man's weapons...even when the odd wound was definitely not a shotgun?

If so, the S in SOP should be changed from "standard" in this instance in order to conform with reality.

It ain't standard in my neck of the woods or at least it wasn't a few years back. The last time I had personal knowledge of local police procedure it was not standard practice. I've known several men who've shot people in self defense. Only gun taken into evidence was the one used in the shooting.
 
"He smiled and said he plans on aquiring another gun"
He does not seem to worried,makes me wonder if one of the LEO's might have "loaned"him on of his "throw aways".
 
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