Three people were wounded in an accidental shooting Saturday at a gun show at the N.C. State Fairgrounds.
A 12-gauge shotgun discharged while its owner unzipped its case for a security officer to check it at a security entrance at the Dixie Gun & Knife Show in the Jim Graham Building, according to State Fairgrounds Police Chief Joel Keith.
Keith said birdshot pellets hit Janet Hoover, 54, of Benson, in the right torso; Linwood Hester, 50, of Durham, in the left hand; and Jake Alderman, a retired Wake County sheriff’s deputy from Wake Forest, in the hand. Hoover and Hester were taken to WakeMed, but no information on their connection was immediately available.
Gary Lynn Wilson, 36, of Wilmington, who brought the shotgun, is being questioned by the Wake Sheriff’s Office, which is handling the investigation. Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison said the shooting was accidental and that it’s too soon to say whether criminal charges will be filed.
Keith said the shotgun’s owner brought the weapon to the show to find a private buyer. The Dixie Gun & Knife Show, which closed early because of the shooting, will reopen Sunday, but Keith said that private gun sales will not be allowed.
Keith said only the vendors at the show, whose weapons are in the building, will be allowed to sell guns Sunday.
The Dixie Gun & Knife Show is a quarterly event that usually draws thousands of people to the fairgrounds in west Raleigh.
Those attending Saturday said the crowd was larger than normal amid fears that new gun control restrictions would be implemented following last month’s Connecticut school massacre in which a gunman killed 20 children and six school staff members. Many people had waited for an hour to get in Saturday.
“I didn’t even get in the door,” said Christopher Kent of Tarboro. “I have been looking forward to this for a while.”
The shooting took place the same day as gun-rights supporters held a Gun Appreciation Day event in downtown Raleigh.
A crowd, estimated by State Capitol Police at around 200 people, marched around the Legislative Building. Protesters held signs such as “The Reason We Have a Constitution Is To Protect Us from Presidents like Barack Obama” and “I (Heart) My AK-47.”
One sign had the words “Come and Take It!” over the image of an assault rifle equipped with a scope and bayonet.
Source : Press Tv
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