State Farm Insurance Anti-Gun
Hunter? Shooter? Who Is Your Good Neighbor? State Farm Insurance Cancels Homeowner over Private Shooting Range on Rural Property.
By GrassRoots South Carolina
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[Note: This story originally broke when we were busy with the elections. At that time, the concern of Second Amendment activists involved in the research of this article was that if allowed to go unchecked, situations like this would spread industry wide. How long before simple ownership of firearms would be considered cause for termination of insurance coverage? This is how incrementalism works and why we must be ever vigilant to stop It in its tracks!]
Gary Atkinson is a good neighbor, even though his nearest neighbor lives hundreds of feet away. He makes his home in rural Chapin, South Carolina on thirteen hilly, mostly wooded acres, along with his wife Lisa, sons Tom and Yates, two horses, three yard dogs, and "too many cats to count" as Gary puts it. "Somebody's got to take in homeless animals" he explains. "If not, well. " His voice trails off. No need to describe the fate of stray animals in a sparsely populated area.
Gary's job in heavy equipment sales brought him from Illinois to South Carolina in 1985. He promptly fell in love with the area, and bought Acreage 25 miles and a culture away from the state capitol in Columbia. Gary and Lisa bought a second, adjoining parcel in 1988, and began building their dream house in 1990. "We moved into the house in
1992" Gary says with a laugh, "but we never stopped building. A barn. Outbuildings. A pool. A pond. There's always something going on at our place". When the time came for Gary to change jobs, he stayed in South Carolina.
Gary admits his rural homestead isn't as rural as it once was. Fifteen families now live along his dead-end country road, and more are discovering this long-forgotten corner of Richland County every year. But it remains a close-knit community, where everybody knows everybody else. The kids play together, the adults are good friends, and the entire neighborhood gets together several times a year for a massive "block
party".
But being a good neighbor involves more than holding block parties and swimming in each other's pools. It involves being there when people have a need. For example, Lisa prepares meals for shut-ins, and Gary uses his tractor and chain saw to help around the neighborhood. Sometimes he cuts grass for people who can't do it themselves. When Mike, their neighbor across the street, broke his back in a fall from a deer stand, Gary built rails on Mike's front steps so that Mike could get in and out of his house. And when there was a loud explosion in the woods behind another neighbor's house, she immediately called Gary and asked him to investigate. Gary found a tree had fallen across a power line in a right-of-way, and started a fire. He fought the fire himself while others summoned help. By the time trained firefighters arrived, Gary had brought
the blaze under control. The firefighters' main job was to put out the still-burning debris. That's the kind of "good neighbor" Gary is.