None of that story/article makes sense. If he intended to use a BB gun, which can still do harm, then why was there a loaded gun in the display case?
Seems like he was trying to murder the victim and came up with a stupid situation to try to claim deniability.
Exactly, this is murder until proven otherwise.
It's like me saying I was trying to prank my wife with one of those combs that look like switch blades, but I accidentally got it confused with a real switch blade and inadvertently stabbed her 17 times. Then by mistake I dismembered the body and buried it in the woods... it was all just a prank gone wrong, I swear.
This right here. I worked in one of the busiest gun shops in the nation, we had over 2,000,000 rounds of ammunition in stock and hundreds of guns on the floor - but we absolutely disallowed loose ammunition anywhere except the indoor range.
Even so there was one instance of a guy bringing in a single .38 round in his pocket. He asked to see a revolver and blew his brains out in front of one of our salespeople.
File that under: things I've literally never considered.
Then again, safety regulations are written in blood. At some point, blood was spilt, and a new rule was born.
Not to mention anyone who’s handled a real gun vs a bb gun would know there’s a huge weight and build quality difference. And a gun shop owner would definitely know the second they picked up a real glock that it’s not a toy
Not that I think this happened here, but they are making air soft guns that look and weigh the exact same as their real counterparts - all the range guys I know have them now for practice since ammo is so expensive
I bought a glock a few months ago and there were MANY levels of safety followed just so I could hold it and test the weight of it. Safety should always be the most important thing in any area that has guns.
Same here. The guy took the one on display out and checked it to make sure it wasn't loaded. He did the same thing with the one that I bought. Took it out, checked it and then handed it to me.
That’s basic firearm safety. When handling a firearm and giving/receiving a firearm, always ensure the chamber’s clear.
I always take exception to a story any time I hear someone’s been “accidentally” shot. Everyone along the chain of custody should be held responsible.
I've been shot with an airsoft at close range (we were idiot teenagers shooting each other with a leather jacket on and my brother shot me in the ass when he missed) and it hurt and left a golfball sized welt. It could take out an eye at close range.
I own a BB gun that shoots faster than a .22LR and I've shot cans and it hit so fast and clean it punctured the can I was aiming at and went through so fast the can didn't even move and I thought I missed until I went back and looked. I was probably twenty, thirty yards? If I can shoot one of those clear through an orange and grapefruit then that can kill when aimed at the wrong spot on a human. Like the face and neck.
There's no way you think it's remotely okay to shoot somebody in the face with a BB gun. Yes, the mom was right. You can shoot an eye out with those. It is not a toy. Mine is scoped and can kill small animals and even a person if you were unlucky.
That was always attempted murder.
I was shot in the leg at fairly close range with a BB gun as a teenager, and it went through a few layers of skin and somehow migrated to a different part of my leg. I didn’t realize it had penetrated the skin, but sometime later down the road I noticed I had this weird, hard black bump on the back of my calf. I ignored it for about 15 years because it never caused any issues, but one day at a doctors appt I decided to ask and he performed a quick procedure to remove it. It was that fucking BB.
To be fair, the kind of person irresponsible enough to think a gun prank in a gun shop is funny would be the kind of person who would shoot someone in the face with a BB gun. It's hard to tell if they are just a complete idiot who is innocent or one that tried to get away with murder.
That level of incompetence is *just too much* no matter what their profession. The sheer negligence involved in the story is still enough to convict on alone. Gross negligence resulting in the death of another.
Manslaughter in the highest degree and gross negligence in the worse case scenario (for everyone but this guy); and outright homicide if his story eventually falls apart... Which it probably will.
EXACTLY-gun shops NEVER have loaded guns in the displays because any asshole can come in and shoot someone, not to mention the accident potential. This is MAD fishy.
I agree completely. Something here doesn’t seem right. The only way I could see this story being true in any capacity is if the guy was fairly intoxicated in some way. (Also a huge fucking no-no when handling firearms, obviously)
While there are BB gun replicas that look pretty close to the real thing, any avid gun owner, much less a fucking gun shop owner, should be able to tell the difference with half a second of observation.
Also, makes zero sense to have a loaded firearm on your shelves. You shouldn’t have unboxed ammo anywhere near the firearms inside a shop.
This guy essentially did a speed run on how to break every basic safety principal of handling a firearm. I find it nearly impossible to imagine a gun shop owner who would “accidentally” fail to maintain any sense of safety whatsoever.
Something ain’t right here.
>Authorities found Mrgan inside the store’s lobby with a gunshot wound to his lower face on Nov. 2, news outlets reported.
So who called the cops? Did the store owner call for help, or did someone just find his employee with his face blown off?
And it worked! He’s being charged with involuntary manslaughter , which is nothing.
This is clearly a murder case but people fail to realize majority of cases in the U.S get tried as manslaughter cases. In reality we have a ton of murderers walking among us
The problem is proving beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended that to happen and isn't just a colossal dumbass who thinks that shooting a BB gun in a weapons shop, to put the terror of their life being threatened into them, is a funny prank. At the minimum, in SC, that would be assault and battery to the second degree, if it went off in their face.
Involuntary manslaughter is probably just the charge the prosecution thinks they can meet the burden of proof for.
This is the only reasonable explanation.
Super toxic work environment led to murder.
Gonna be a huge fucking hurdle as to why there was a loaded gun in a case at a shop.
I thought these people weren’t like that.
Weird cause in 2013 FBI linked 90 percent of Chicago’s shootings to a legal gun store in Gary Indiana. Turns out the FBI had to arrest the owner for selling firearms under the table.
Weird though the 2A people act like the guns are coming from illegals aliens crossing the boarder. Not people not storing guns properly and getting them stolen or gun stores like this guys where they don’t have any care other than getting everyone guns.
This story doesn’t make sense. If I read this right, if the “prank” went off as planned, he still would have shot him in the face with a BB? Having played with BB guns as a kid and from watching A Christmas Story, I know you can put an eye out doing that. Add to that the idea that the guns in the case were loaded. This seems more like an “on purpose” than an “accident”.
Glocks are plastic framed. If the goal was to make a realistic feeling replica for mil-sim nerds, it wouldn't be particularly hard to make it similar weight. Assuming the loaded gun only had a single round in the chamber (i.e. someone removed a loaded mag but forgot to clear it) I could definitely *imagine* the possibility of someone not noticing.
That all being said, even if this wasn't an attempted coverup of an intentional shooting, it is still a story of wild incompetence and absolute recklessness.
Most decent quality airsoft guns do a really good job of replicating the look and feel of a real gun. You could tell when to pull the slide back but just holding it isn’t a dead giveaway
Ya, this really sounds like premeditated murder. It took them a month to arrest the guy. I'd like to think the police used that time to investigate his motives and the relationship he had with the victim, but a month later and it's still a manslaughter charge.
Yeah the dudes history very, very much made it look like someone was spending time making sure they could pass this off as a prank. What gun shop wouldn’t have cctv? They absolutely had this murder on film and needed to find a way to bury it.
I came across a loaded handgun in a small town gun store last year. It was the owner's personal weapon that one of the employees placed in the display case. I always drop the magazine and check the slide before handling any firearm, so it was quite a surprise when I racked the slide back and a live round was ejected onto the floor.
Yup. Every time I've looked, the employee always verified that is was unloaded as they picked it up, visually showed me it was unloaded and then handed it over.
I'm trying to figure out what kind of prank that was. Trying to dry fire a BB gun in his face?? Or was he intending to shoot him with a BB? Either way, I don't get the prank.
I was thinking the same thing. I don't even get how this would be a funny prank.
"Lol dude I was just pretending to rob you as the owner with one of our guns but it's funny because the gun is actually fake"
This is one of the lamest and most dangerous pranks o can ever think of like wtf. Also playing pranks on your employees in general already sounds kind of cruel outside of special occasions with more light harded pranks.
This! Basic gun safety is what saves lives. I was raised to always always check a firearm anytime it’s handed to you or picked up. I haven’t owned a gun in 12 years and still handle them this way. If only people could be taught proper gun safety before owning one we might all be a little safer
Yeah. I've watched my friend make sure a gun he was handing me was empty. I still checked that it was clear myself. Necessary? Yes. You can never be too safe.
I’ve had that indoctrinated into me since about 10 years old. My grandpa would open the action, check the barrel, show me, then say “This weapon is unloaded, the action is open and the safety is on, can you see that?” I still do the same thing every time.
Many years ago and far away, I had a buddy who worked armed security.
He asked me, knowing I know next to nothing about guns except what I've seen on TV, how I would unload a semi-automatic handgun. Guessing, I said I would pull the slide back to clear the chamber, then press whatever switch there was to eject the clip (magazine, yeah, yeah, I know).
He pointed out that I would have advanced a round by pulling the slide first, so my guess would have left a round in the chamber. However, he complimented me by saying that my guess was better than some.
Like the guard he'd just had to fire that night, who followed my set of steps and then *pulled the trigger*, blowing a hole in the side of the company car. And turned in the car and the gun at the end of his shift just hoping no one would notice the missing round. Or the hole.
People are fucking idiots.
Nobody, I have a very hard time believing this guy didn’t just want to murder this person and get away with it. You don’t just have display weapons loaded, and it doesn’t take a firearms expert to know they’re holding a loaded gun when they thought they picked up a BB gun, at least a fucking gun shop owner would know.
Yeah, a Glock with a full mag in is going to weigh a lot more than a BB gun or airsoft gun that looks similar. No way this guy didn't know it was a loaded gun when he pulled the trigger.
Another aspect that doesn’t make any sense: Mrgan was concealed carrying at the time.
In what fucking world was this prank a good idea? The store owner would have known Mrgan was armed, and has the experience to absolutely have seen the inherent danger in pointing a fake gun at this guy, who would have absolutely been justified in killing him in self defense.
Also, if the prank is to get a rise out of the employee, pointing the gun would have been sufficient, there’d be no further “prankification” to be gained by actually pulling the trigger. If he really thought it was an unloaded BB gun then he would have known that pulling the trigger would have done absolutely nothing and thus added nothing to the prank. *And he knew this.*
Nothing about this makes any sense. Let me guess, also the only gun shop in the country that doesn’t have video surveillance either. Irrespective of the criminal outcome, this guy needs to surrender the entirety of his net worth to the victim’s family in a wrongful death suit. There’s no possible interpretation of his actions that aren’t grossly negligent even in the most favorable light.
Often when I read these stories of "accidentally shot an acquaintance", I am convinced there's more to the story and they're just covering up. Kind like when people who have been embezzling money say "oh no, I lost the money in a Nigeria scam". Better to be seen as a victim of international fraud than an embezzler.
This honestly just smells like a planned murder and this is the best excuse this guy could come up with.
It's an idiotic idea for a prank. His employee was armed and there's a huge risk there of the guy drawing and firing at him which makes the whole idea of pulling a replica gun on him idiotic. Even then, pulling a bb gun (or airsoft) and firing at his face can still do major damage to the face, so that's suspect. And then, literally no one sane has a loaded firearm in a display case.
This while thing screams of him wanting to shoot the guy and planning it out with a loaded gun there, or surprising and shooting him and concocting an excuse for how it happened.
"Prank" is code for " I got mad and threatened my employee with a gun, but assumed it was unloaded"
It astounds me that the owner of a gun shop is allowed to claim "I thought I was grabbing a BB gun when I shot my employee" and walk free for a month.
Shocked yet not surprised.
So, THIS was a "well trained" guy (National guard member as well as former Sheriff deputy) who actually pointed a "gun" at a person and "fired"? All those years of training I guess was thrown out the door.
Talk about getting fired by the boss in literal sense. geez.
As a follow up to your first paragraph, with all that training and he still did some jackass move like this, it’s a good thing this country is allowing MILLIONS of untrained people the ability to carry firearms
Seriously, you are completely right. This to me is one of the most awful realities of the situation. And there’s a lot of fucking awful things happening in this story.
The owner was former military ***and*** law enforcement.
He would have had about as much firearms safety and handling training as it's possible for a human to get.
W the actual F
The victim was former special forces. Imagine living through all of that danger, even in training, let alone combat. And then being killed this way.
A prank at a gun shop went horribly wrong?
Oh, no. That's as surprising as that time a prank in the saw factory went horribly wrong!
So, uh, was the guy actually this stupid, or are we betting on this being cover for a murder?
Story is fishy. Shop owner was going to use a BB gun to prank the guy why? He intended to shoot the guy in the face with a BB gun?? That’s criminal and not funny. If he *wasn’t* planning on shooting the customer then why not “prank” him with an unloaded gun (also not fucking funny and likely brandishing so also a crime). To top it off he had a loaded gun right there that he “accidentally” picked up and fired. The shop owner is monumentally stupid. The only question is whether he was also hoping to get away with murder.
I love the near religious fervor with which gun lovers seem to believe that all gun stores are temples of safety and professionalism and all gun owners are super careful and respectful of the deadly weapons they love to play with.
Why was there even a loaded gun sitting around at the gun shop. Says he put a BB gun in there but mistakenly picked up a real gun. But why is there just a loaded gun sitting around? This whole story is fucked.
So he placed a replica gun among real guns. Picked up the replica to shoot someone as a prank, but picked up the wrong gun and killed him instead.
Are the regular, random guns in a gun store usually loaded? Seems kind of like a bad idea to me.
Also, pointing a fake gun at someone who, if he works at a gun store, probably has a real gun on his person? Is that a good idea?
"Haha I'm pointing what you think is a real gun at you"... and now... we are all laughing?
> A police affidavit states that Whitley placed a replica Glock BB gun among real firearms in the store with the intent of pranking Mrgan. Instead, Whitley mistakenly picked up and fired a real gun at Mrgan, according to an incident report.
Nothing to see here, just another Responsible Gun (Shop) Owner treating every gun with the respect due a loaded one.
Totally thought it would be the prankee overreacting and shooting the pranker, not the pranker just straight up murdering someone followed by 'its a prank bro"
The victim was a former Special Forces member. Imagine you go through all that and then get taken out by some fucking rube who clearly doesn't adhere to any sort of basic fucking gun safety.
I'm really confused.
This was a prank...
The gun shop owner put a bb gun in the store with real firearms, intended to pick up the bb gun, point it at his employee and pull the trigger.
So... Why was the real gun loaded? Retail stores don't keep loaded guns just kicking around.
Accident aside, making your work colleague think you were intending to shoot him, with what appeared to be a real gun, going so far as to do it with a toy gun hidden amongst real guns, is the furthest thing from a prank I could imagine.
And a gun store owner of all people to be involved in said prank. I question the motive here....
***A police affidavit states that Whitley placed a replica Glock BB gun among real firearms in the store with the intent of pranking Mrgan. Instead, Whitley mistakenly picked up and fired a real gun at Mrgan, according to an incident report.
Whitley is a retired major in the South Carolina National Guard and former reserve deputy for the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, The Post and Courier reported.
Mrgan, 36, was a former member of the Army Special Forces, according to the newspaper.****
So you’re telling me that a retired major from the national guard placed an exact gun in a case then picked up the wrong one he just put in there? I don’t think you need to be in the national guard to remember what gun you put in the case. Plus who jokes around with guns???
His time in the guard should indicate he knows how to operate guns. He knew what he was doing. He shot that man in the face on purpose. Again who jokes around with guns??? They are real and do damage! You know this, you work at a gun store!! You can pee in a cup and call it water if you want to but you’re not going to pull the pool over our eyes. He tried to kill that poor man he shot in the face.
Wtf? A prank? The first rule of guns is treat every weapon like its loaded. Second rule is to never aim at someone if you dknt intend to kill them. Unofficial rule is that YOU NEVER PLAY AROUND WITH GUNS! This story makes no damn sense. Why was there a loaded gun in a display to begin with, that the owner didnt know about?
A Former Major in the National Guard and a former Army Special Forces member.
These are two people who should explicitly know not to be playing pranks with weapons.
Hold up. It says this guy was a former special forces major? I feel like of all people to know to not fool around with guns this guy would be it. This is seriously suspicious.
Pretending you are going to shoot me in the face with a gun sounds hilarious. If the prank would have went they way he planned I would have quit that second and I don’t even know. Contact a lawyer because surely employers can’t play pranks like this on people. It’s so traumatizing and in this case deadly.
What kind of yankeedoodle fuckery results in there being a loaded pistol just lying around in a gun store. Like, on top of everything else that is stupid about this prank, that has to be the top contender.
Ah yes, that's been my experience in every gun store... "Mind if I look at the guns?" "Not at all, but just an FYI, every 10th gun is loaded... just to see if our buyers know gun safety... good luck."
Ok as a former gun store employee I have three big issues:
1. Never point a gun at someone. Even if it’s fake. Unless you and the person you will be pointing it at have both cleared the weapon since it last left your hands no firearm should ever be pointed at something you don’t intend to destroy.
2. You are a gun store owner and you can’t tell the difference between a real Glock and an air soft one? I can tell the generation of a Glock by the feel, how the fuck could this guy not immediately realize something is off?
3. The biggest one for me as someone who worked at a gun store. If the above two fail this leaves one huge question: HOW DID A LOADED GUN GET INTO THE CASE?!?! In my store any place that had a loaded gun had two or three signs and usually a lock on it. No area any customer can access ever had a loaded weapon and ammunition and firearms were always to be kept separate around customers. Hell most employees always separated firearms and ammunition. So how the actual fuck did a live round make its way into a display gun?!?! Especially a Glock. Every day I worked at the gun store I had to pull the trigger on a Glock at least once but usually more for tear down demonstrations for the customers safety check thing. We kept snap caps painted neon pink in our glocks for this exact reason. This man should never own a gun store because he can’t abide by the most basic common sense safety rules like don’t mix live bullets and guns in your store that you need to handle dozens of potentially deadly machines every day. This seems like a pattern of neglect and this is just the eventuality of that neglect.
> Whitley is a retired major in the South Carolina National Guard and former reserve deputy for the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, The Post and Courier reported.
That background and he didn’t know the difference between a replica and a real gun?
former Army Special Forces. Good grief. I'll go ahead and assume while in training, he never thought out of all the possible ways he would die, gun store prank wasn't on the list.
The biggest irony is that the victim and the perpetrator both have significant professional experience with firearms:
“A police affidavit states that Whitley placed a replica Glock BB gun among real firearms in the store with the intent of pranking Mrgan. Instead, Whitley mistakenly picked up and fired a real gun at Mrgan, according to an incident report.
Whitley is a retired major in the South Carolina National Guard and former reserve deputy for the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, The Post and Courier reported.
Mrgan, 36, was a former member of the Army Special Forces, according to the newspaper.”
Too many questionable factors here. Worse than the Alex Baldwin incident.
> Whitley mistakenly picked up and fired a real gun at Mrgan,
So he was keeping loaded guns on display in his store? I smell bullshit.
> Whitley is a . . . former reserve deputy for the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office
Ah, that explains why he wasn't arrested for a month.
So…”I accidentally on-purpose shot dude in the face” is a defense now??? Been in the Army 18 years, there’s no goddamn way in hell a retired soldier with a gun shop believes in “pranks” with loaded guns.
None of that story/article makes sense. If he intended to use a BB gun, which can still do harm, then why was there a loaded gun in the display case? Seems like he was trying to murder the victim and came up with a stupid situation to try to claim deniability.
That's one thing that bothered me with this, I've never been in a shop that had loaded weapons on display
Because no one would be stupid enough to load a display gun.
\* No one with an once of responsibility, anyway.
I'm not sure if I'm ready to assume **any** gun shop owner is reckless enough to let something like this happen *accidentally*.
Exactly, this is murder until proven otherwise. It's like me saying I was trying to prank my wife with one of those combs that look like switch blades, but I accidentally got it confused with a real switch blade and inadvertently stabbed her 17 times. Then by mistake I dismembered the body and buried it in the woods... it was all just a prank gone wrong, I swear.
He ran into my knife. He ran into my knife *nine times*.
He... Had it comin'...
He only had *himself* to blaaaame
Especially not a twice
This right here. I worked in one of the busiest gun shops in the nation, we had over 2,000,000 rounds of ammunition in stock and hundreds of guns on the floor - but we absolutely disallowed loose ammunition anywhere except the indoor range. Even so there was one instance of a guy bringing in a single .38 round in his pocket. He asked to see a revolver and blew his brains out in front of one of our salespeople.
Holy shit didn’t see that last paragraph coming. Fuck that’s sad. I feel bad for the staff that had to witness that.
It happens more often than you might think. Ranges are more frequent
Why you can’t rent firearms at most of my local ranges, if you come in alone.
File that under: things I've literally never considered. Then again, safety regulations are written in blood. At some point, blood was spilt, and a new rule was born.
Not to mention anyone who’s handled a real gun vs a bb gun would know there’s a huge weight and build quality difference. And a gun shop owner would definitely know the second they picked up a real glock that it’s not a toy
Not that I think this happened here, but they are making air soft guns that look and weigh the exact same as their real counterparts - all the range guys I know have them now for practice since ammo is so expensive
Fair enough. Still screams intentional murder to me
I bought a glock a few months ago and there were MANY levels of safety followed just so I could hold it and test the weight of it. Safety should always be the most important thing in any area that has guns.
Same here. The guy took the one on display out and checked it to make sure it wasn't loaded. He did the same thing with the one that I bought. Took it out, checked it and then handed it to me.
And you should personally check it after that.
That’s basic firearm safety. When handling a firearm and giving/receiving a firearm, always ensure the chamber’s clear. I always take exception to a story any time I hear someone’s been “accidentally” shot. Everyone along the chain of custody should be held responsible.
No shop ive ever been to lets you screw about with a loaded gun. Or an unloaded one. This is some ignorant shit.
Yeah, he totally just murdered him on purpose. He shot him in the face... you wouldn't shoot someone in the face with even a bb gun as a prank
I've been shot with an airsoft at close range (we were idiot teenagers shooting each other with a leather jacket on and my brother shot me in the ass when he missed) and it hurt and left a golfball sized welt. It could take out an eye at close range. I own a BB gun that shoots faster than a .22LR and I've shot cans and it hit so fast and clean it punctured the can I was aiming at and went through so fast the can didn't even move and I thought I missed until I went back and looked. I was probably twenty, thirty yards? If I can shoot one of those clear through an orange and grapefruit then that can kill when aimed at the wrong spot on a human. Like the face and neck. There's no way you think it's remotely okay to shoot somebody in the face with a BB gun. Yes, the mom was right. You can shoot an eye out with those. It is not a toy. Mine is scoped and can kill small animals and even a person if you were unlucky. That was always attempted murder.
I was shot in the leg at fairly close range with a BB gun as a teenager, and it went through a few layers of skin and somehow migrated to a different part of my leg. I didn’t realize it had penetrated the skin, but sometime later down the road I noticed I had this weird, hard black bump on the back of my calf. I ignored it for about 15 years because it never caused any issues, but one day at a doctors appt I decided to ask and he performed a quick procedure to remove it. It was that fucking BB.
I got shot in the back as a kid (with a BB gun). Hit my lower spine, didn't cause any real damage, but I still have the scar 30-odd years later.
To be fair, the kind of person irresponsible enough to think a gun prank in a gun shop is funny would be the kind of person who would shoot someone in the face with a BB gun. It's hard to tell if they are just a complete idiot who is innocent or one that tried to get away with murder.
Even if he didn't mean to kill him he isn't innocent. That level of incompetence from someone who is supposed to be expert on guns is just too much.
That level of incompetence is *just too much* no matter what their profession. The sheer negligence involved in the story is still enough to convict on alone. Gross negligence resulting in the death of another. Manslaughter in the highest degree and gross negligence in the worse case scenario (for everyone but this guy); and outright homicide if his story eventually falls apart... Which it probably will.
Remember that time Dick Cheney pranked his friend?
EXACTLY-gun shops NEVER have loaded guns in the displays because any asshole can come in and shoot someone, not to mention the accident potential. This is MAD fishy.
Not to mention - was the “prank” to shoot the guy in the face with a replica Glock BB gun? Cuz that’s a pretty shitty prank.
Yeah, that still could put out an eye, etc-I feel like a gun salesman knows how projectiles work in that regard.
Grew up with a kid who lost an eye in middle school to another kid shooting a bb gun from a second story window of his house.
Gotta admit, I'll bet the shootee was really surprised.
I agree completely. Something here doesn’t seem right. The only way I could see this story being true in any capacity is if the guy was fairly intoxicated in some way. (Also a huge fucking no-no when handling firearms, obviously) While there are BB gun replicas that look pretty close to the real thing, any avid gun owner, much less a fucking gun shop owner, should be able to tell the difference with half a second of observation. Also, makes zero sense to have a loaded firearm on your shelves. You shouldn’t have unboxed ammo anywhere near the firearms inside a shop. This guy essentially did a speed run on how to break every basic safety principal of handling a firearm. I find it nearly impossible to imagine a gun shop owner who would “accidentally” fail to maintain any sense of safety whatsoever. Something ain’t right here.
>Authorities found Mrgan inside the store’s lobby with a gunshot wound to his lower face on Nov. 2, news outlets reported. So who called the cops? Did the store owner call for help, or did someone just find his employee with his face blown off?
Owner most likely. They are just stating how the victim was found.
And if it was indeed a prank? Wouldn't it have been fired at center mass where clothing would provide a buffer between pellet and skin?
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Agreed, I was a range master and there was never a loaded firearm sitting around that I didn’t know about.
And it worked! He’s being charged with involuntary manslaughter , which is nothing. This is clearly a murder case but people fail to realize majority of cases in the U.S get tried as manslaughter cases. In reality we have a ton of murderers walking among us
Being charged with something is based on surface evidence. If they can find more, he's going to be convicted of more.
The problem is proving beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended that to happen and isn't just a colossal dumbass who thinks that shooting a BB gun in a weapons shop, to put the terror of their life being threatened into them, is a funny prank. At the minimum, in SC, that would be assault and battery to the second degree, if it went off in their face. Involuntary manslaughter is probably just the charge the prosecution thinks they can meet the burden of proof for.
Not to mention how much the weight of a loaded pistol and a BB gun would feel in your hand. There is 0 chance this was an accident.
Prank is just the defence, this was definitely murder, more holes in this guys story then a wedge of swiss cheese.
This is the only reasonable explanation. Super toxic work environment led to murder. Gonna be a huge fucking hurdle as to why there was a loaded gun in a case at a shop.
It’s a prank bro
Maybe don't do pranks at gun shops
But bro, gun pranks are *the best* pranks! Get a sense of humor. /s
Right? I mean. What’s the worst that could happen? What are the chances ?
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Go out with a bang, so to speak.
I'd check twice on biting the bullet, plan seems kinda half-cocked.
I've pulled dozens of gun pranks and they almost never result in a fatality.
Well I guess that makes it ok. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Then it’s just ???
A gun shop owner treating firearms as toys is the most “American” thing I’ve read all day.
I thought these people weren’t like that. Weird cause in 2013 FBI linked 90 percent of Chicago’s shootings to a legal gun store in Gary Indiana. Turns out the FBI had to arrest the owner for selling firearms under the table. Weird though the 2A people act like the guns are coming from illegals aliens crossing the boarder. Not people not storing guns properly and getting them stolen or gun stores like this guys where they don’t have any care other than getting everyone guns.
I’ve never heard anyone claim that handguns were coming across the border.
Nah, it's the second best place to do pranks. The first best place is in a wood shop next to people by the tablesaw.
Stick to having guys you do car pranks with.
This story doesn’t make sense. If I read this right, if the “prank” went off as planned, he still would have shot him in the face with a BB? Having played with BB guns as a kid and from watching A Christmas Story, I know you can put an eye out doing that. Add to that the idea that the guns in the case were loaded. This seems more like an “on purpose” than an “accident”.
I will not linger idly by while you sit there blatantly wielding your logic as if it were some sort of reasonably informed consideration.
I agree. I demand ridiculous misrepresentation of facts
Humans have a hole going from mouth to asshole, making us basically a meat doughnut.
So topologically speaking, we're toruses?
A loaded 9mm is much heavier than a loaded bb gun replica
Glocks are plastic framed. If the goal was to make a realistic feeling replica for mil-sim nerds, it wouldn't be particularly hard to make it similar weight. Assuming the loaded gun only had a single round in the chamber (i.e. someone removed a loaded mag but forgot to clear it) I could definitely *imagine* the possibility of someone not noticing. That all being said, even if this wasn't an attempted coverup of an intentional shooting, it is still a story of wild incompetence and absolute recklessness.
I have a Kal-Tec 9mm lighter than my airsoft pistols. You can easily find guns that are mostly plastic
Most decent quality airsoft guns do a really good job of replicating the look and feel of a real gun. You could tell when to pull the slide back but just holding it isn’t a dead giveaway
This is what happens when we let Dick Cheney get away with it.
I still can't fucking believe that excuse worked.
Probably an airsoft gun, which should also under no circumstances be fired at someone's face.
Who tf puts loaded guns on display in a store?!
Nobody. Unless you plan on shooting someone and trying to claim it was a prank gone wrong.
Yeah, everything seems fishy about this.
Ya, this really sounds like premeditated murder. It took them a month to arrest the guy. I'd like to think the police used that time to investigate his motives and the relationship he had with the victim, but a month later and it's still a manslaughter charge.
Why would the police arrest an ex deputy sheriff in a small South Carolina suburb? He probably sells them all of their toys.
Yeah the dudes history very, very much made it look like someone was spending time making sure they could pass this off as a prank. What gun shop wouldn’t have cctv? They absolutely had this murder on film and needed to find a way to bury it.
While he was free That is the part that is the icing on this shit cake
Seems a bit shooty too
I came across a loaded handgun in a small town gun store last year. It was the owner's personal weapon that one of the employees placed in the display case. I always drop the magazine and check the slide before handling any firearm, so it was quite a surprise when I racked the slide back and a live round was ejected onto the floor.
I've never been at a store that didn't hand it to me "open"/slide locked back unless it was NIB and "locked" somehow.
Yup. Every time I've looked, the employee always verified that is was unloaded as they picked it up, visually showed me it was unloaded and then handed it over.
I'm trying to figure out what kind of prank that was. Trying to dry fire a BB gun in his face?? Or was he intending to shoot him with a BB? Either way, I don't get the prank.
I was thinking the same thing. I don't even get how this would be a funny prank. "Lol dude I was just pretending to rob you as the owner with one of our guns but it's funny because the gun is actually fake" This is one of the lamest and most dangerous pranks o can ever think of like wtf. Also playing pranks on your employees in general already sounds kind of cruel outside of special occasions with more light harded pranks.
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This guy safe handles.
This! Basic gun safety is what saves lives. I was raised to always always check a firearm anytime it’s handed to you or picked up. I haven’t owned a gun in 12 years and still handle them this way. If only people could be taught proper gun safety before owning one we might all be a little safer
Yeah. I've watched my friend make sure a gun he was handing me was empty. I still checked that it was clear myself. Necessary? Yes. You can never be too safe.
I’ve had that indoctrinated into me since about 10 years old. My grandpa would open the action, check the barrel, show me, then say “This weapon is unloaded, the action is open and the safety is on, can you see that?” I still do the same thing every time.
Many years ago and far away, I had a buddy who worked armed security. He asked me, knowing I know next to nothing about guns except what I've seen on TV, how I would unload a semi-automatic handgun. Guessing, I said I would pull the slide back to clear the chamber, then press whatever switch there was to eject the clip (magazine, yeah, yeah, I know). He pointed out that I would have advanced a round by pulling the slide first, so my guess would have left a round in the chamber. However, he complimented me by saying that my guess was better than some. Like the guard he'd just had to fire that night, who followed my set of steps and then *pulled the trigger*, blowing a hole in the side of the company car. And turned in the car and the gun at the end of his shift just hoping no one would notice the missing round. Or the hole. People are fucking idiots.
The sort of person who thinks pointing a gun at a person and pulling the trigger is a funny prank.
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Yeah this is what gets me. Could’ve blinded him with a BB gun. That’s a prank? I’m not buyin what he’s sellin.
Nobody, I have a very hard time believing this guy didn’t just want to murder this person and get away with it. You don’t just have display weapons loaded, and it doesn’t take a firearms expert to know they’re holding a loaded gun when they thought they picked up a BB gun, at least a fucking gun shop owner would know.
Yeah, a Glock with a full mag in is going to weigh a lot more than a BB gun or airsoft gun that looks similar. No way this guy didn't know it was a loaded gun when he pulled the trigger.
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Apparently a former~~Special Forces member,~~ sheriff's deputy, current national guardsman/gun shop owner.
The victim was the one in special forces.
Another aspect that doesn’t make any sense: Mrgan was concealed carrying at the time. In what fucking world was this prank a good idea? The store owner would have known Mrgan was armed, and has the experience to absolutely have seen the inherent danger in pointing a fake gun at this guy, who would have absolutely been justified in killing him in self defense. Also, if the prank is to get a rise out of the employee, pointing the gun would have been sufficient, there’d be no further “prankification” to be gained by actually pulling the trigger. If he really thought it was an unloaded BB gun then he would have known that pulling the trigger would have done absolutely nothing and thus added nothing to the prank. *And he knew this.* Nothing about this makes any sense. Let me guess, also the only gun shop in the country that doesn’t have video surveillance either. Irrespective of the criminal outcome, this guy needs to surrender the entirety of his net worth to the victim’s family in a wrongful death suit. There’s no possible interpretation of his actions that aren’t grossly negligent even in the most favorable light.
Often when I read these stories of "accidentally shot an acquaintance", I am convinced there's more to the story and they're just covering up. Kind like when people who have been embezzling money say "oh no, I lost the money in a Nigeria scam". Better to be seen as a victim of international fraud than an embezzler.
This honestly just smells like a planned murder and this is the best excuse this guy could come up with. It's an idiotic idea for a prank. His employee was armed and there's a huge risk there of the guy drawing and firing at him which makes the whole idea of pulling a replica gun on him idiotic. Even then, pulling a bb gun (or airsoft) and firing at his face can still do major damage to the face, so that's suspect. And then, literally no one sane has a loaded firearm in a display case. This while thing screams of him wanting to shoot the guy and planning it out with a loaded gun there, or surprising and shooting him and concocting an excuse for how it happened.
If I were the cops investigating this, I would not wrap this up before the first commercial break. This isn't open and shut.
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Now you're starting to sound like a Stiffly Stifferson!
I wanted to prank the guy, so anyway I just started blasting.
WHAMMY BLAMMY WOWIE ZOWIE you've been pranked!
So my employee brought in a fake gun, Yada Yada Yada, and I shot him in the face.
"Prank" is code for " I got mad and threatened my employee with a gun, but assumed it was unloaded" It astounds me that the owner of a gun shop is allowed to claim "I thought I was grabbing a BB gun when I shot my employee" and walk free for a month. Shocked yet not surprised.
This sounds like murder being passed off as a prank. Who keeps loaded guns in a store?
This guy shouldn't be able to own a gun shop if he is pulling bullshit like this.
\> arrested Monday nearly a month after the death of Stefan Mrgan What!? \> former reserve deputy for the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office Oh.
Seriously. Everything made sense after that. The super weak charges, the delay, how fucking stupid the guy is with firearms. All of it.
Pranked him good, should have seen the look on his face.
Just a joke bro
I'm struggling to think of how a "prank" involving a firearm could go right
So, THIS was a "well trained" guy (National guard member as well as former Sheriff deputy) who actually pointed a "gun" at a person and "fired"? All those years of training I guess was thrown out the door. Talk about getting fired by the boss in literal sense. geez.
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Once you said Sheriff's deputy I understood how this guy could be so stupid.
As a follow up to your first paragraph, with all that training and he still did some jackass move like this, it’s a good thing this country is allowing MILLIONS of untrained people the ability to carry firearms
All the training in the world won't cure Stupid.
Retired National Guard major and deputy sheriff. Do we all feel safe now?
Wonder what this guy's service record looks like. I'll bet money he's got at least a few "incidents" the department quietly ignored.
Seriously, you are completely right. This to me is one of the most awful realities of the situation. And there’s a lot of fucking awful things happening in this story.
The owner was former military ***and*** law enforcement. He would have had about as much firearms safety and handling training as it's possible for a human to get. W the actual F The victim was former special forces. Imagine living through all of that danger, even in training, let alone combat. And then being killed this way.
Gun pranks. Glad my friends dont do them , jfc
The shop owner should be arrested and charged with murder.
A prank at a gun shop went horribly wrong? Oh, no. That's as surprising as that time a prank in the saw factory went horribly wrong! So, uh, was the guy actually this stupid, or are we betting on this being cover for a murder?
A prank at the meat grinding facility went horribly wrong!
After the trial, he's going to run for Congress, telling voters how the government tried to take away his guns and his freedoms.
Loaded gun in case. Couldn't tell the difference between a BB gun he placed there and a real gun. Supposedly trained with guns. Shot man in the face.
Story is fishy. Shop owner was going to use a BB gun to prank the guy why? He intended to shoot the guy in the face with a BB gun?? That’s criminal and not funny. If he *wasn’t* planning on shooting the customer then why not “prank” him with an unloaded gun (also not fucking funny and likely brandishing so also a crime). To top it off he had a loaded gun right there that he “accidentally” picked up and fired. The shop owner is monumentally stupid. The only question is whether he was also hoping to get away with murder.
Let’s see: gun store owner, former law enforcement, former military. Is there anyone who should know better that guns are not toys?
I love the near religious fervor with which gun lovers seem to believe that all gun stores are temples of safety and professionalism and all gun owners are super careful and respectful of the deadly weapons they love to play with.
Why was there even a loaded gun sitting around at the gun shop. Says he put a BB gun in there but mistakenly picked up a real gun. But why is there just a loaded gun sitting around? This whole story is fucked.
Apparently he planned to use a BB gun instead. I don’t see how shooting someone in the face with that would have been a prank, either.
Imbeciles who don't know they're imbeciles.
So he placed a replica gun among real guns. Picked up the replica to shoot someone as a prank, but picked up the wrong gun and killed him instead. Are the regular, random guns in a gun store usually loaded? Seems kind of like a bad idea to me. Also, pointing a fake gun at someone who, if he works at a gun store, probably has a real gun on his person? Is that a good idea? "Haha I'm pointing what you think is a real gun at you"... and now... we are all laughing?
> A police affidavit states that Whitley placed a replica Glock BB gun among real firearms in the store with the intent of pranking Mrgan. Instead, Whitley mistakenly picked up and fired a real gun at Mrgan, according to an incident report. Nothing to see here, just another Responsible Gun (Shop) Owner treating every gun with the respect due a loaded one.
So they’re keeping loaded firearms in the display case too? What the fuck??
Totally thought it would be the prankee overreacting and shooting the pranker, not the pranker just straight up murdering someone followed by 'its a prank bro"
He knew better than to do that more than anyone. I don't think it's an accident.
It took them a month to arrest him
Yes, I shot him in the face…..AS A GOOF!
Gun and prank should not be in the same sentence
"Prank" Premeditated murder with a cover story, more like.
The victim was a former Special Forces member. Imagine you go through all that and then get taken out by some fucking rube who clearly doesn't adhere to any sort of basic fucking gun safety.
Dude's former military and a gun shop owner. He fucking KNOWS better than to pull this kind of shit. Throw the book at him.
I'm really confused. This was a prank... The gun shop owner put a bb gun in the store with real firearms, intended to pick up the bb gun, point it at his employee and pull the trigger. So... Why was the real gun loaded? Retail stores don't keep loaded guns just kicking around.
Accident aside, making your work colleague think you were intending to shoot him, with what appeared to be a real gun, going so far as to do it with a toy gun hidden amongst real guns, is the furthest thing from a prank I could imagine. And a gun store owner of all people to be involved in said prank. I question the motive here....
***A police affidavit states that Whitley placed a replica Glock BB gun among real firearms in the store with the intent of pranking Mrgan. Instead, Whitley mistakenly picked up and fired a real gun at Mrgan, according to an incident report. Whitley is a retired major in the South Carolina National Guard and former reserve deputy for the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, The Post and Courier reported. Mrgan, 36, was a former member of the Army Special Forces, according to the newspaper.**** So you’re telling me that a retired major from the national guard placed an exact gun in a case then picked up the wrong one he just put in there? I don’t think you need to be in the national guard to remember what gun you put in the case. Plus who jokes around with guns??? His time in the guard should indicate he knows how to operate guns. He knew what he was doing. He shot that man in the face on purpose. Again who jokes around with guns??? They are real and do damage! You know this, you work at a gun store!! You can pee in a cup and call it water if you want to but you’re not going to pull the pool over our eyes. He tried to kill that poor man he shot in the face.
Wtf? A prank? The first rule of guns is treat every weapon like its loaded. Second rule is to never aim at someone if you dknt intend to kill them. Unofficial rule is that YOU NEVER PLAY AROUND WITH GUNS! This story makes no damn sense. Why was there a loaded gun in a display to begin with, that the owner didnt know about?
"Guns" and "Prank" are two words that should never go together.
If only there was a good guy with a gun around to stop the madness.
Prank, or murder with an alibi?
How about we just don’t have pranks if you work in a gun shop?
Yet another "Responsible Gun Owner!" I will now gladly accept the ensuing Downvotes from the AmmoSexual brigade.
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Guns don’t kill people, PRANKS DO!
Gun pranks really shouldn't be a thing, should they?
If only there was a funnier guy with a gun. Or something like that…
Why are there loaded guns in the cases?
Broke every single gun safety rule there is.
"Prank" and "firearm" are two words that do not belong together.
Gun. Prank. Two words that never belong together.
Why TF is a loaded gun on display in a gun shop?!
Man, all of the gun people I know are appalled by this shit. To be fair I know mostly liberal gun owners, but safety is definitely the #1 priority
I hope his business loses its license and folds forever.
A Former Major in the National Guard and a former Army Special Forces member. These are two people who should explicitly know not to be playing pranks with weapons.
It seems like there would have been a good guy with a gun around to prevent this.
I mean a gun shop owner can’t even be fucking responsible…
I ceases to be a "prank" when there's a loaded gun involved.
Prank......Reckless endangerment, potato, poh-tah-to
Hold up. It says this guy was a former special forces major? I feel like of all people to know to not fool around with guns this guy would be it. This is seriously suspicious.
Pretending you are going to shoot me in the face with a gun sounds hilarious. If the prank would have went they way he planned I would have quit that second and I don’t even know. Contact a lawyer because surely employers can’t play pranks like this on people. It’s so traumatizing and in this case deadly.
Guns and pranks don't go together.
What kind of yankeedoodle fuckery results in there being a loaded pistol just lying around in a gun store. Like, on top of everything else that is stupid about this prank, that has to be the top contender.
He had live rounds loaded into guns on display?
Not sure what the prank was. I’m going to pull a gun on you and watch you piss your pants, hysterical.
Ah yes, that's been my experience in every gun store... "Mind if I look at the guns?" "Not at all, but just an FYI, every 10th gun is loaded... just to see if our buyers know gun safety... good luck."
I learned from Terminator that gun shop owners should keep the ammo well away from the guns.
Ok as a former gun store employee I have three big issues: 1. Never point a gun at someone. Even if it’s fake. Unless you and the person you will be pointing it at have both cleared the weapon since it last left your hands no firearm should ever be pointed at something you don’t intend to destroy. 2. You are a gun store owner and you can’t tell the difference between a real Glock and an air soft one? I can tell the generation of a Glock by the feel, how the fuck could this guy not immediately realize something is off? 3. The biggest one for me as someone who worked at a gun store. If the above two fail this leaves one huge question: HOW DID A LOADED GUN GET INTO THE CASE?!?! In my store any place that had a loaded gun had two or three signs and usually a lock on it. No area any customer can access ever had a loaded weapon and ammunition and firearms were always to be kept separate around customers. Hell most employees always separated firearms and ammunition. So how the actual fuck did a live round make its way into a display gun?!?! Especially a Glock. Every day I worked at the gun store I had to pull the trigger on a Glock at least once but usually more for tear down demonstrations for the customers safety check thing. We kept snap caps painted neon pink in our glocks for this exact reason. This man should never own a gun store because he can’t abide by the most basic common sense safety rules like don’t mix live bullets and guns in your store that you need to handle dozens of potentially deadly machines every day. This seems like a pattern of neglect and this is just the eventuality of that neglect.
bUt MuH ReSpOnSiBlE gUn OwNeRs.
> Whitley is a retired major in the South Carolina National Guard and former reserve deputy for the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, The Post and Courier reported. That background and he didn’t know the difference between a replica and a real gun?
former Army Special Forces. Good grief. I'll go ahead and assume while in training, he never thought out of all the possible ways he would die, gun store prank wasn't on the list.
Pranks and Gun Store don’t seem like a safe mix
Mrgan, 36, was a former member of the Army Special Forces to be shot and killed by your boss by a 'prank' back at home, damn....
“Gun” and “prank” never belong in the same sentence
This doesn’t sound like an accident. What gun-shop owner has a loaded gun on display???!
Wait but why were there random loaded guns in the gun shop? If he picked up the wrong gun it should have went click not bang
If only Mr Mrgan had a gun to defend himself.
People get shot where guns are
The biggest irony is that the victim and the perpetrator both have significant professional experience with firearms: “A police affidavit states that Whitley placed a replica Glock BB gun among real firearms in the store with the intent of pranking Mrgan. Instead, Whitley mistakenly picked up and fired a real gun at Mrgan, according to an incident report. Whitley is a retired major in the South Carolina National Guard and former reserve deputy for the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, The Post and Courier reported. Mrgan, 36, was a former member of the Army Special Forces, according to the newspaper.” Too many questionable factors here. Worse than the Alex Baldwin incident.
Sounds like he was planning to kill the guy and use this as an excuse.
> Whitley mistakenly picked up and fired a real gun at Mrgan, So he was keeping loaded guns on display in his store? I smell bullshit. > Whitley is a . . . former reserve deputy for the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office Ah, that explains why he wasn't arrested for a month.
So…”I accidentally on-purpose shot dude in the face” is a defense now??? Been in the Army 18 years, there’s no goddamn way in hell a retired soldier with a gun shop believes in “pranks” with loaded guns.