Catherine Templeton’s gun problem

Conservative Outsider and Republican Gubernatorial candidate Catherine Templeton (which I’ve come to think of as her full legal name, based on her campaign’s releases) is talking tough on guns again:

Yeah, those darned kids, lacking the gumption to stand up for their God-given right to get gunned down in geometry class…

Anyway, guns are kind of a theme for her at the moment.

Over at the Greenville paper’s website, you can find video of her squeezing off a few rounds at a local range.

She’d better hope folks only watch the video, and don’t read the story that goes with it. An excerpt:

SLED disputes Catherine Templeton’s claims…

In a campaign ad posted online last week, Republican candidate for governor Catherine Templeton said she “ruffled so many feathers” after starting work for former Gov. Nikki Haley in 2011 that state law-enforcement officials grew concerned for her safety.

“The State Law Enforcement Division actually called and said, ‘Catherine, we need you to get a concealed weapons permit; we need you to start carrying, and we need you to protect yourself because of you’ve made a lot of people mad,'” Templeton says in the ad.

South Carolina Law Enforcement Division spokesman Thom Berry said he could find no evidence that his agency told Templeton to obtain a concealed-weapons permit or carry a gun.

“It is not our practice to tell, instruct or order a person to obtain a concealed-weapons permit,” Berry said in response to questions from The Greenville News and Independent Mail….

Both SLED Chief Mark Keel (through Berry) and his predecessor Reggie Lloyd deny having made such a recommendation to her.

Berry confirms that she did take a concealed-weapons class organized by SLED in 2011, along with some court officials.

Which makes this part even more embarrassing:

Before Monday’s interview, Templeton took a .38-caliber handgun that belonged to her grandfather out of her purse at the gun range. As two campaign aides, a photographer and a reporter watched, Templeton tried to fire the weapon several times but it repeatedly malfunctioned…

But there’s a happy ending for this campaign’s pistol-packin’ mama:

Using another .38-caliber handgun provided by an employee at the business, Templeton struck a body-shaped target in the head and chest with several shots.

That’s in the video. After which, she says of the man-shaped target, “Yeah, he’s done…”

No, it’s not Ted Cruz makin’ machine-gun bacon, but she does what she can…

"Yeah, he's done," she says of the target.

“Yeah, he’s done,” she says of the target.

20 thoughts on “Catherine Templeton’s gun problem

  1. Brad Warthen Post author

    Did y’all like my alliteration up there?

    …God-given right to get gunned down…

    A couple more lines like that and I’ve got a country song…

  2. Bryan Caskey

    My favorite part of the whole piece is how the .38 she carries around malfunctioned. I tweeted that and said “Metaphor Alert!”.

    And the story about how SLED told her she needed to get a CWP because she was such an outider ruffling feathers at LLR? Good grief. Everyone knows SLED doesn’t tell people to go get CWPs in any official manner. That’s not their job, obviously.

    Good lord, this woman is running a bad campaign. It’s like everything she does is calculated to get people who are otherwise inclined to vote for her, to not.

  3. Barry

    Templeton is a moron.

    Proud both my sons participated in the walkouts today. Neither were protesting “guns.”

    So silly.

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      You know what worries me about her? That she’s not a moron, but is willing to play one on TV to get elected.

      Which implies that if elected, she’d be willing to govern like a moron. When she knows better…

      1. Richard

        Brad you scrutinize everyone, have you ever scrutinized yourself? As much as you believe you’re right and anyone who disagrees with you is wrong, I wonder why you don’t ever run for something… actually doing the job is likely harder than sitting back and constantly complaining like you do.

        I’d love to have you hold office at least once in your life (and we don’t need some grade school example). It doesn’t need to be a full-time job… run for a school board seat or some county committee that only meets once a month. In other words, put your money where your mouth is. My money is you’ll give us dozens of excuses why you won’t or can’t.

        1. Brad Warthen Post author

          “Brad you scrutinize everyone, have you ever scrutinized yourself?”

          You bet. All day, every day.

          And if you’ll recall, I considered running for the House in 2016, when my district’s seat came open. But I also explained to all of you why I didn’t — I met with Micah Caskey, who was seeking the GOP nomination, and I decided I liked him enough that if I were running against him, I’d vote for him. And I think he’s done a good job.

          I’ve always disliked people who run against candidates who are obviously superior to them, just out of personal ambition (one of many reasons I despise Trump). I won’t run unless I think I would bring something worthwhile to the race that’s missing.

          I’m not ruling it out for the future, but good opportunities are few and far between, unless you’re one of those desperate people I just mentioned who wants to get elected to something, no matter whether qualified or not.

          I think I’m best suited, by experience and understanding of the issues, to serve in the Legislature. So that means either Micah or Nikki Setzler deciding not to run.

          I did look sort of hungrily over at the race concluded this week for Rick Quinn’s seat, especially after the person who seemed best qualified (at a glance, from a distance) didn’t make it into the runoff. But I don’t live in that district. I used to, but I got drawn out of it…

          1. Richard

            “And if you’ll recall, I considered running for the House in 2016, when my district’s seat came open. But I also explained to all of you why I didn’t ”

            Pretty poor excuse, you don’t run just because someone else does if you think you can serve and do well. It’s not the first name in the hat that gets the position… you let the voters decide who they want in office.

            what party would you have run under?

            1. Brad Warthen Post author

              No party. I can’t join a party — at least, neither one of these two. So, as I explained in the post I linked to, I’d be the UnParty candidate.

              Which is a very, very steep challenge. The odds are always against an independent run.

              Which means that if there’s a strong candidate seeking a major-party nomination — someone who I’d want to vote for myself — an independent run would be a waste of time and money, a pure ego trip. And as I say, I tend to hold that sort of campaign in contempt.

              This is especially true when that strong candidate has the nomination of the party that the district was drawn for.

              These are reasons, by the way, not “excuses.” Extremely strong reasons. If you don’t understand that, you don’t understand politics….

              1. Claus2

                So you’d run a losing campaign if you were ever to run. To win you’d either need to run on the Democratic or Republican party otherwise you’re just wasting your time.

  4. Barry

    She is also a liar. I use to work at LLR. Her tenure there was typical: Nothing newsworthy or memorable about anything she said or did. That isn’t bad. It’s just evidence that she didn’t make anyone mad as she describes.

    And as someone who shoots pistols all the time, I’ve never been around anyone who comments “he’s done” or anything remotely close to that after target practice.

    1. Barry

      The. Ore she talks guns, the more I am convinced she doesn’t have a clue about them.

      My friends that shoot the most don’t talk about their guns in terms of bragging, or how great their target practice sessions go.

      1. Claus2

        “My friends that shoot the most don’t talk about their guns in terms of bragging, or how great their target practice sessions go.”

        How many of those friends are running for office and had a camera stuck in their face after leaving the range? No different than a sports figure being interviewed after a game, what else do you expect them to talk about at that time?

        1. Brad Warthen Post author

          “and had a camera stuck in their face”

          You say that like someone was doing something TO her, instead of this being a thing her campaign deliberately set up to let her perform for the camera. In other words, a much-desired opportunity for her.

          Do you actually think someone with camera ambushed her in a shooting range? You think she was surprised to find the camera there? You think she would have said what she said had the camera not been there?

          1. Richard

            Plus you’re scared to death that she’ll beat your boy Jimmy Smith in the General Election. Gotta push all the Democrats you can on this blog, when is the last time Brad backed a Republican candidate for anything?

            1. Brad Warthen Post author

              “when is the last time Brad backed a Republican candidate?”

              In the last election. And the one before that. And every election since this blog has existed, and beyond. You don’t pay much attention, do you?

              You really have a problem with reading comprehension. It’s astounding that anyone could read what I write here and say something as absurd as “Gotta push all the Democrats…”

              What blog have you been reading, and confusing it with this one?

        2. Barry

          No one stuck a camera in her face. She did it.

          She isn’t an athelete that represents only himself/herself- and at least when they talk after a game they talk in a way that sounds like they know the game they play.

          “He’s done” after shooting a few shots at a paper target? Good gracious. Sounds like she is full of $&#! Hoping some idiots think she has a clue.

          She’s running to represent everyone, at least she should be.

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