Top prosecutor: No gun-related charges for SC congressman

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina’s top prosecutor isn’t bringing charges against a congressman who pulled out his own loaded handgun during a constituent meeting to make a point about gun safety.

Attorney General Alan Wilson said Tuesday that the action taken by U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman “is not a prosecutable offence.”

State Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson had asked state police and a local prosecutor to investigate the first-term Republican, who placed a .38-calibre gun on a table during a meeting last week at a Rock Hill restaurant.

Norman said he wasn’t going to be “a Gabby Giffords,” referring to the former Arizona congresswoman shot outside a grocery store during a 2011 constituent gathering.

Local prosecutor Kevin Brackett recused himself and sent the case to Wilson, adding that he didn’t think laws had been broken.