Jackson Free Press

Cliff Cargill is a licensed, certified NRA instructor who teaches rifle, pistol, shotgun, home safety and personal protection. He was with the Hinds County Sheriff's Department from 1993-95, where he taught deputies on the shooting range. He has been an active competitor in shooting matches for more than 17 years, and he has been Mississippi state champion three times.

What are some of your concerns with how Mayor Frank Melton handles weapons?

Just a total lack of awareness for where he points the firearm, number one. The second thing is his finger is clearly in the trigger guard of the shotgun that I've seen him hold, and if he lets off a live shotgun shell, with it pointed at concrete or asphalt, his legs and feet and anyone around him in the immediate area are going to receive severe injuries. People don't realize what a shotgun can do, but it would be very devastating. … If he fires a shotgun with the muzzle there, you're going to have a club-foot mayor. It's not just the fact that he's endangering himself; it's the other people around him. The other really bad thing that I saw was when he beat on a door with the butt of a shotgun.

What's the problem?

The problem is that the muzzle is pointed out toward the reporters, the bystanders and the cameramen, and the people don't know they're looking down the barrel of a loaded gun. Again, he has no idea of where his muzzle is pointed. The second thing is, as he faded back from the door, there is an officer standing on the right side of the doorway with his back against the wall. In the video, after (Melton) beats on the door, he sweeps the officer from head to toe with the muzzle of the gun, points it straight at the guy's face. And you know, there's no calling 911 to get an ambulance with a point-blank shotgun injury. If he had fired a round, it would have killed the officer.

What about his holsters?

Safari Land—they're a police holster and gear company—came out years ago with retention holsters. In a nutshell, a level one holster is just a simple snap. It takes one action to retrieve the firearm from the holster. A level two, it takes two actions, perhaps unsnapping the gun in one place, and unsnapping it in another to draw the firearm. And then a level three would take the first snap, the second snap and perhaps rotating the gun backward to pull it out of the holster.

What's the purpose of these holsters?

The purpose is that if an officer gets into a rolling tumble, duking it out with a criminal or multiple criminals, the criminal can't yank the gun off the officer's body and kill him with it. That's how a lot of officers are killed by their own guns. When you see a patrol officer on the street, they all carry retention holsters.

Was the mayor using a retention holster?

They don't look like retention holsters to me. Typically, when you see nylon, nylon has a real cheap ring to it, and not only can a perpetrator snatch the gun out of the holster, he can rip the gun off the officer's body. It happens.

But the thing that greatly concerns me is the idea that he's walking around with a shotgun, obviously not in control of it, and he has two other guns on his body. If he gets into a rolling tumble with a criminal, the two bodyguards that carry MP5s are going to need to be in control of their firearms. So they can't take their hands off their guns to keep the criminal away from his guns. The mayor only has two hands, and he has three guns in public.

What about where he holsters his guns?

The one that concerns me is the one the front of his body, in the police vest, with a holster that's built into the vest. That doesn't look very secure. That is a SWAT-type vest, and in situations with SWAT, they put those things there, but if you've ever seen a SWAT team, they have got their guns out. They're in a big group of people. They aren't a single officer that's going to get into a rolling tumble with an individual. … The stuff I've seen the mayor wear looks cheap, it looks thrown together, and it doesn't look like it fits well. I would have to put my hands on it to see exactly what is it, but it's my opinion that a criminal could easily take a firearm from him.

What about Melton having a concealed weapons permit and carrying his weapons openly?

I can't speak for the law, but you, as a citizen, are not encouraged to carry a firearm openly in the state of Mississippi. You will have a lot of problems if you go into a grocery store with a firearm out in the open.

Do you think Melton could be trained to handle weapons safely?

When you learn how to handle firearms, one thing required is an open mind. You have to drop the attitude that you already know everything. I guess that would be up to the mayor.