South Carolina’s Holy City was abuzz this week after a trio of young men were found on the roof of a College of Charleston parking garage – allegedly passed out in a vehicle loaded to the gills with guns and ammunition. The incident unfolded at approximately 2025) on the roof of the Saint Philip Street parking garage in downtown Charleston, S.C. After observing a suspicious vehicle on surveillance footage, officers with the college’s public safety department approached it and encountered three individuals – Jorge Antonio Calvario, A’tavious Sincere Flowers and J’marri Aisian McCall – unconscious inside the car. Multiple automatic weapons and handguns were discovered on their persons – along with a massive cache of ammunition. Specifically, police recovered three dozen rounds and three magazines of 10mm ammunition, 14 rounds of .45 caliber ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) ammunition, 184 rounds of .300 ammunition and five 7.62mm rifle magazines. The trio was, definitionally, “loaded for bear.” Upon removing the three men from the vehicle – a process which occurred without incident – responding officers noted all three were “unsteady on their feet” and had “red, glassy eyes and the odor of alcoholic beverage emanating from their breath.”

After placing the three men in custody, campus police attempted to charge them with a violation of S.C. Code of Laws § 16-23-420 – which prohibits the possession of “a firearm of any kind on any premises or property owned, operated, or controlled by a private or public school, college, university, technical college, other post-secondary institution.” When these charges were taken to Charleston County magistrate Mary Paige Adams, however, she conferred with fellow magistrate Amanda Haselden and a decision was made not to sign arrest warrants on this charge – and to release the three men from police custody. To read mainstream media accounts, this decision by Adams and Haseldon lacked any rational justification – or explanation. In fact, reporters with The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier specifically called Adams out for refusing to return their calls seeking “the reasoning behind her refusal to approve the swearing of arrest warrants.” Never mind that judges are not allowed to speak with members of the media, meaning Adams couldn’t provide “the reasoning” for her decision even if she wanted to. Public outrage predictably – and on the surface, appropriately – followed. Charleston residents were up in arms over the apparent miscarriage of justice and subsequent endangerment of their community.

What the Post and Courier failed to mention, however, was the existence of an explicit statutory exemption – one contained in the very law College of Charleston police were seeking to enforce upon these three men. That exemption holds that the aforementioned campus firearm ban “does not apply to a guard, law enforcement officer, or member of the armed forces.” Why does that matter? Because Calvario, Flowers and McCall are each active duty military. Instead of mentioning that key piece of information, however, the Post and Courier publicly shamed these two judges and proceeded to go on a woke tirade against the Palmetto State’s permit-less carry law – which has absolutely nothing to do with this situation at all. College police chief Chip Searson belatedly acknowledged “a current clause in the state law allows enlisted members of the military (and others) to carry firearms on school/college/university property.” Nonetheless, Searson maintained his officers made the correct call – even though they were reportedly warned in advance that this “clause” would prevent any judge from signing a sworn probable cause affidavit leveling the weapons charge. “I contend this is not being interpreted in the spirit of why this law was written,” Searson wrote in a post on his Facebook page. “The mere fact you are in the military should not give you the right to possess weapons on school property unless authorized or in performance of duties.” “Certainly, not at 2:38 a.m., laying unconscious with the doors open in a vehicle,” Searson added.