haven't seen any comments in your forum about this incident. national news indicates that the shooter, paul doering, is a convicted felon and will be charged in federal court as a felon in possession. no state charges.
fella said he borrowed the blackhawk to participate in the shootout and thought it was loaded with blanks.
I'd really like to know more if any of you folks have more info.

we've got a shootout that's been going on in my county for 50 years (jackson hole),no problems except one of the shootout gang once broke his leg when he dived off the roof of a bar after being "shot" by the posse. and I've seen them elsewhere, like in oatman, ca. they're fun but I've always found them vaguely creepy- hard for a lifelong shooter to watch people ignore the four rules of safe gun handling when they're surrounded by a crowd.

anyway, why isn't the state charging this guy with something?

If the feds are charging him, why would the state waste their time?  We do that lots around here, if Uncle Sam wants the case.....let him have it.  It saves time, money, court time, and doesnt cost the county/state to house the guy.

I bet he won't have that problem again.  I guess I can give a shit if it has blanks, is unloaded or whatever...you don't point guns at anything you don't intend to destroy or kill.  It's bone-headed bullshit like this that gives the DC antis more fuel for their utopic, disarmament fire we're trying to piss on to put out.

that's why I'm surprised that he isn't facing any state charges- folks in sd seem to value freedom as much as we do here in wy. from the outside the lack of state charges makes it seem like the county attorney is just trying to cover things up.

I just read that sd has a state law that says a felon can't possess a firearm for fifteen years.

don't get me wrong- I'm on your side all the way. but the way I look at this is that people in, say, new jersey, or people like chuck schumer and barbara boxer will be looking at this and say, " see, we need to ban guns, this idiot shot three tourists and south dakota didn't even charge him".

this reminds me of an ''accident" that happened in my county about twenty years ago. two guys from michigan were part of a hunting party after elk. they left camp, one with a bugle, and, you guessed it, one of them shoots the other who is standing behind a tree bugling and raking a tree. let me make this clear: by his own admission he said that he saw the tree moving and heard the bugle, and fired at the tree thinking there was an elk behind it.

this was an awful thing. the county decided not to prosecute this guy because they said that he had suffered enough.

I disagreed then, and I disagree now. they should have charged him with negligent homicide and let him plea to probation. the state needs to prosecute these things to make sure that people understand that reckless acts have consequences. if an example is made in these cases it protects the rest of us.