BY Herschel Smith
8 years, 5 months ago
His name is Elliott Summey.
Charleston County Council Chairman Elliott Summey, a guns rights advocate who said he owns “a pile of guns,” now has said he mistakenly voted in favor of a resolution last week calling for state and federal authorities to outlaw the very type of firearms he owns.
Summey said there was some confusion at last Thursday’s vote because the resolution, as originally presented in writing, called for laws “banning all assault-style weapons” in South Carolina. Summey said he took that to mean fully automatic machine guns that fire hundreds of rounds, as were depicted in a video shown to council.
The council action had no force of law — a resolution is a statement of opinion — but it’s passage was noted by the National Rifle Association and websites such as Firearmslife. Summey, who switched political affiliations in 2012 and joined the Republican Party, issued a statement Monday disavowing his days-earlier support of the resolution.
“I’m not voting to take away guns that I already own,” Summey said Tuesday. “That’s insane.”
No, what would be insane is to believe you didn’t mean your vote. A real gun owner and gun rights supporter wouldn’t have been hoodwinked by words, and would have voted against any new gun control law anyway.
What happens down in Charleston anyway? Where do they get these people? It was the Charleston lobby that persuaded the now defrocked Larry Martin to kill open carry because of all that tourism that would certainly have shut down if someone had seen a gun.
Good grief.