More than 20 people were injured in a shooting on St. Helena Island in South Carolina on Sunday. The shooter’s weapon was described as “high-powered,” which doesn’t mean a whole hell of a lot in and of itself.
After all, “high-powered” is relative. High-powered compared to what? A .22 rifle is “high-powered” compared to a sling shot, for example, and the 5.56 round is described by the media in a similar light, even though it’s too low-powered to be used for hunting in some states.
So, while the sheriff says it was a high-powered firearm, a retired ATF agent was sought out, and he has thoughts.
Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner confirmed Wednesday that all 20 victims were shot — evidence, experts say, that points to a weapon capable of firing dozens of rounds in seconds.
Retired ATF Agent Brian Lett says the number of victims suggests the shooter may have used a handgun converted into a machine gun.
“It’s a simple adaptation to a pistol,” Lett explained. “It can spray a lot of bullets in a very short time — and it really has no accuracy whatsoever.”
To be sure, a handgun with a full-auto switch is certainly a possibility, what with there being a lot of rounds fired in such a short period of time. And Lett is right about the accuracy of such weapons. It’s not so much that they can’t be fired accurately at all, just that they’re very hard to control, which means accuracy is limited at best, especially if you just try to use a full-auto switch-equipped handgun as a bullet hose.
However, Lett seems to think there’s a magical tool the ATF has that will fix everything.
The ATF is assisting local investigators in processing evidence from the scene. Lett says their expertise can help track where the weapon came from.
“The fastest thing that can occur is tracing the firearm through the ATF system,” Lett said, “In less than 24 hours, the last known purchaser can be identified.”
Let’s understand something, though. The last “known” purchaser will be the person who purchased a gun via a licensed gun dealer initially. That’s generally it.
Sure, someone who then sold it via a licensed dealer, like through a consignment deal, might be able to lead the ATF to the next purchaser, but that’s not a requirement. South Carolina still allows face-to-face transfers, so numerous lawful transactions could have taken place with that firearm without the ATF knowing a thing about it.
Finding the last “known” purchaser doesn’t mean diddly, even if every transaction had been lawful.
Far too often, though, guns used for illicit purposes are acquired illegally.
See, it’s not that what Lett said was wrong necessarily. It’s that it might give people a false impression of just how beneficial the ATF’s tracing actually is.
In fact, so far as anyone can tell, it’s never been the key in solving any crime, ever.
So yeah, they might know who bought the gun within 24 hours, but that means precisely jack. Especially since they can’t know if they still owned the gun when the crime was committed.
People need to understand what tracing is and what it does, because people want to create policies based on this poor understanding. A former ATF agent feeding into that isn’t helping.
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