ALLEN STEPHENSON LIKES HIS FIREARMS …
To be clear: We don’t know exactly what went down outside the $2 million German castle located at 229 Altamont Road (near Greenville, S.C.) on Saturday.
All we know is that one person – a 32-year-old man by the name of Matthew Whitman – wound up getting shot and killed at the 30-acre estate owned by wealthy apparel magnate Allen Stephenson.
We also know that Stephenson pulled the trigger of the shotgun that killed Whitman … ostensibly in response to an attempted knife attack by Whitman, someone Stephenson claims he did not know prior to the alleged assault.
If this version of events – related by Stephenson’s attorney – is true, then police ought to immediately absolve the wealthy businessman of any wrongdoing and let him go on his merry way (i.e. continuing to make big sweet dollars off of selling clothing to frat boys and sorority girls).
But Stephenson’s close proximity to prosecutors in the Greenville area – most notably S.C. Senate candidate William Timmons – has some questioning whether he is receiving special treatment in the case.
For example … why was his name not immediately released by authorities in the aftermath of the shooting?
Opponents of self-defense laws are also looking very closely at the case to see if there is any way they can use it to weaken South Carolina’s “Stand Your Ground” laws – as well as its “Castle Doctrine” protections.
“Stand Your Ground” laws outline the circumstances in which individuals can use deadly force in the face of an oncoming attacker. The “Castle Doctrine” – which would appear to apply literally in this case – allows for homeowners to use deadly force in the event they feel threatened on their own property.
Anyway, gun rights opponents will no doubt be emboldened by pre-shooting images of Stephenson (far right) and his buddies showing off their various weaponry …
(Click to enlarge)
Ummmm … welcome to the “gun show,” right?
Obviously gun rights are under attack in South Carolina at the moment … which is bad. Fortunately, it appears as though efforts to weaken second amendment protections are not gaining any traction legislatively.
Which is good …
This website has consistently embraced gun rights – going so far as to recommend civil disobedience of any law that runs counter to the second amendment. Aside from the obvious constitutional rationale, there’s a practical equation at work here: More guns = less crime.
Gun ownership is a right … and an important safeguard of life, liberty and property.
If the Allen Stephenson case went down the way his lawyer said it did, then it should be a compelling affirmation of this principle … as well as the necessity of “Stand Your Ground” laws.
Let’s hope that’s what happened …
153 comments
Your main premise has been debunked countless times….http://m.livescience.com/51446-guns-do-not-deter-crime.html
That’s not exactly a complete rebuttal. More like an alternative opinion regarding the data, if you ask me. I find their interpretation of some of the data to be quite naive.
I think the (currently) first FB-based comment connected to this article makes a great point about the article’s validity, or lack thereof.
“Bryan Bethany Keeton
Owner at King Kong Roofing
Lol I guess putting a bullet in a criminal doesn’t make them think twice. The twinkies who believe this have never used a gun to stop crime like many other civillians. I guess cops carry them to encourage crime, and our military carries them to encourage terrorism.”
Mental Note: Scrub the picture of me wearing two bandoleers of 00 buckshot holding a camo AR style Tactical Turkey Mossberg, with a smile from ear to ear.
Tactical Turkey — now that would be a good moniker for someone.
https://www.google.com/search?q=mossberg+tactical+turkey+500&rlz=1C1CHWA_enUS643US644&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjPlvy009fLAhUMMj4KHfj4CZAQsAQIHA&biw=1366&bih=683
15 rounds of 12 gauge target load and my shoulder was purple.
Ya weren’t wearing a thong standing with your buddies along a mountain stream – right?
Oh that gets me all hot!
No, I am horrible when it comes to getting the perfect elements in my pictures.
Bullshit. The FBI begs to differ with FACTS. http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrybell/2013/05/14/disarming-realities-as-gun-sales-soar-gun-crimes-plummet/#6c4665da7de9
What a bunch of douches. No wonder one of those poofs wound up dead.
I don’t think you understand the situation. Reading is fundamental.
Coming from a pile of shit, I’ll take that with a grain of salt.
Seriously, I think you’re confused about who was shot.
I don’t care who got shot while hanging around that guy. The photo just proves that the shooter is a careless douche with firearms and it isn’t surprising someone would wind up shot to death in his company. Reading is fundamental.
You said “one of those poofs” as if it were someone in the photograph. The derp in you is brimming over.
I am a gun owner and carry(CWP) my gun on me. These shitheads in this picture should never be allowed to touch another gun until they grow up. Alcohol, stupidity, and guns is nothing but trouble.
You pretty much described the southern United States.
Yes, the south is the ONLY place alcohol, stupidity and firearms mix?!?! If you believe this, you really should get out and travel the United States more.
Alcohol, stupidity, and guns are everywhere in the United States, but they are in higher concentration down south. Just like there is higher concentrations of stupid in the region located between your ears.
Do you have links to statistics on the higher concentration “down south”, or are you just pulling that out of your cock hole?
I observe it almost daily on the 11-o-clock news.
If you’re only watching the 11 o’clock news in your market, you’re missing 209 other television markets. You couldn’t possibly be getting the entire story, slapdick.
209 channels, most of which air programming that somehow manages to be worse than the infomercials that play at 3 in the morning. Wow, I’m sure missing out on that.
I get my news from a variety of sources, the least of which is TV, but TV news is enough to point to in order to illustrate the point of the south being the drunk, stupid, gun-slinging red-headed stepchild of the US.
I’m not talking about channels, shit for brains. A television market is different than a channel. There are 210 television markets across the country. You’re the one that started yammering on about how you see it on the 11 o’clock news, not me. You seem like either a child, mentally handicapped or just plain ignorant. Possibly a combination of all three.
I recall someone saying something about sophomoric insults being for the intellectually bankrupt, but you deleted that comment before I could reply.
209 markets, 209 channels, who gives a shit. Television sucks. You need to find better ways of entertainment. Read a book. Go outside. Get a hobby.
If you’re so deeply concerned about giving all 210 “markets” a fair shake then you sound more like an inbred couch potato glued to the boob tube, which doesn’t help your argument that the south isn’t stupid.
I don’t even have cable television. Idiots like you are way too easy.
Not being able to afford cable TV isn’t a bragging right in most places, shitty pants.
If you don’t have cable TV then why the fuck are you asking me to check out 209 other TV markets? I am truly facepalming at this point. You’re like the Rembrandt of dumb.
I bet he has no idea what his profile name even means.
You’re the asshole that said the first word about television, I’m just playing along with you. I used to work in television, that’s probably a contributing factor to why I am disinterested in television now. I simply was trying to inform you that there is a difference between a tv market and a tv channel. You seem like a stupid ass that doesn’t want to be informed.
“You’re like the Rembrandt of dumb.”
lol…ok, that’s funny. I’m stealing that putdown.
I’ll admit, It was pretty funny.
The boy has a preconceived idea and Dammit, he is out to make us believe him. Crime does not happen in other parts of the country, just down South.
I don’t give a shit who or what you believe, I’m just informing you of what everyone else observes.
You’re sounding more ignorant and ill-informed with each keystroke, keep digging.
The only one digging a deeper hole of ignorance is the south.
Where does South Carolina place nationally on education again?
Thank you, Carnack, but I will pass on believing your research(?).
Do you know how to click on a hyperlink?
http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/death-by-gun-top-20-states-with-highest-rates/21/
Maybe he can get a grandkid or great grandkid to show him how to work the wheely clicky thing next to the skinny paperless typewriter.
I don’t think any of the inbred anklebiters around these old farts could muster up more than a trip to World Star Hip Hop.
At least Worldstar can teach them a few life lessons, clearly that’s more than mommy and daddy learned.
Of course not, he is making shit up.
“higher concentration” of stupidity between his ears.
Why do the old gumps here not know how to look things up for themselves?
http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/death-by-gun-top-20-states-with-highest-rates/21/
Windows 95 came out 20 years ago. They’ve had at least that long to figure out how to use a search engine.
Maybe alcohol or stupidity is to blame here.
He did choose a pic of what appears to be a turd that just smoked a joint for his profile pic. What should we expect, really?
While you’re sitting in your moms basement, searching around the interwebs, you should look at the disproportionate number of gun homicides in democrat strongholds like Chicago and Detroit.
I own my home, shit for brains. Sorry that facts prove me right and you still have nothing. What an apt profile image you picked out for yourself.
They ask for statistics and then dismiss you when you provide them, but they don’t provide their own statistics.
But they insist THEY are the smart ones.
Hoo boy, they keep proving us right with every post.
That’s the thing about stupid people. They lack the ability to recognize their lack of intelligence. It’s a scientifically proven vicious cycle of derp. I’d ask them to look it up, but….you know.
Link to the scientifically proven cycle of derp, please.
Congrats, I have 3 of them.
What? Facts to prove me wrong? I highly doubt that.
Two singles and a double-wide?
EHHHGH! Kids these days and their newfangled interwebs!
Some of the trashiest, low IQ, imbecilic rednecks I’ve ever met while living in Florida hailed from Ohio and “Upstate” New York.
Trashy, low IQ imbeciles from Ohio? I know of one who comments here daily.
How about Chicago, killing each other is a weekend gang ritual.
Killing is a hobby in Chitown.
So they had to relocate to the south to fit in? Probably had to move to a place with more stupid people just to survive.
Lawd, don’t get me started on my husband’s family in Philadelphia. They make my hillbilly relatives from the upstate look like Ravenels.
I don’t know why, but I have only met one male from Pittsburgh or Philly that wasn’t a Class I D bag that well deserved a beat down. Met plenty from the more rural areas that were okay, especially along the I-81 corridor. There seems to be a epicenter of white trash located close to Lake Erie where NY and Pa meet.
Evidently, you must not have heard of Chicago, Baltimore, Kansas City, Detroit, etc.
My description is universal. There are fools with guns everywhere.
Oh I’ve heard of yankee bastions of alcohol, stupidity, and drugs.
Did you forget? The dumb drunk gun nuts move down here when they retire, possibly because they feel more at home with more of their own kind.
You’re making shit up now.
You are just out and trolling.
See? It took you that long to figure out I’m just yanking you idiots around. More than enough observable evidence of the stupid part of the Southern Trifecta of alcohol, stupidity and guns.
He’s right. States with highest rates of shootings are nearly all southern and run by republicans.
http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/death-by-gun-top-20-states-with-highest-rates/21/
Statistically, there are far more deaths from accidental shootings in the South. Between overdosing on painkillers, driving drink and mixing guns and alcohol, it’s no wonder the white trash in the south is a dying inbreed.
Where are the stats?
Right here.
http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/death-by-gun-top-20-states-with-highest-rates/21/
Last time I checked the #1 state, Alaska, wasn’t a part of the south.
Fuckin’ Canada still laughs at us over Alaska. So does Russia.
Look at the top eleven, starting with SC. The arguement is, Most are from the south. Try harder next time.
Careful, he’s from the south, you have to give him a handicap in this “debate” or you’ll come across as a jerk.
You’re right. Geography is probably a graduate level course in SC.
People didn’t take Miss Teen South Carolina seriously about her maps speech because of how ridiculously stupid she sounded, but she really had a valid, intellectual point. SC is too stupid to comprehend basic geography, to the point where the state should just issue every citizen maps to at least marginally resolve the problem.
They wouldn’t know what a map even is. They’d be like “Why this here paper got crappy camouflage all over it?!?” And then try to wipe their ass with it.
Let’s see, Palin’s one of the dumbest Alaskans there is, she loves guns, has an accent as annoying as nails on a chalkboard, and her “abstinent” daughter has been knocked up multiple times now.
If that doesn’t scream “southern heritage” I don’t know what does.
Uhhhh…, I don’t know how to break this to you, but last time I looked, …………… Alaska was waayyy north of here.
I don’t know how to break it to you, but the arguement is that most states with the highest gun deaths are in the south. Try again, dimwit.
Once again, you demonstrate that reading is not your strong point.
“Palin Drone Fecal Matters
25 minutes ago
Let’s see, Palin’s one of the dumbest Alaskans there is, she loves guns, has an accent as annoying as nails on a chalkboard, and her “abstinent” daughter has been knocked up multiple times now.
If that doesn’t scream “southern heritage” I don’t know what does.”
Please note that I am not in disagreement with his assessment of the Palins, just his connecting them to Southern Heritage.
Yeah, I checked the map, some of the highest are outside the South.
And if you would consider all the statistical variables related to gun deaths, it would probably prove things they don’t dare to talk about.
Things they don’t dare talk about? I wonder what that could mean.
The dog in your avatar can hear that whistle loud and clear, see how perked up he is?
“Numbers Don’t lie” made the following statement..
“it’s no wonder the white trash in the south is a dying inbreed.”
Insinuating that the murder rate in the South is high because of “white trash.”
I suggest you check the FBI violent crime statistics, it may shed some light on the problem. I did not “dog whistle” anything, he opened the door and I will close it. Check the numbers or restructure your argument away from “Southern White Trash.”
“Numbers Don’t Lie” , that’s for sure.
Alcohol helps them forget. Stupidity means they don’t have to care. Guns help them cleanse their own gene pool. There may be hope for Darwin’s theory after all.
What’s Chicago’s excuse?
If you check the FBI stats for murders with guns, I can assure you that “white trash” in the South is not the category with the highest rate for death by gun. You don’t want to go there. It blows your narrative apart.
Read and remain slack jawed…
http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/death-by-gun-top-20-states-with-highest-rates/21/
I read yours carefully, you did not read mine carefully.
Only thing is they’re your nephews……………
I’ve been in 3 wars and helped kill shitloads of ragheads and Serbs and on more than one occasion they tried their best to blow my plane out of the sky
The day comes where I have to pack heat is the day it is over for the United States of America.
You & ones like you don’t have a fucking clue……………….
Do you ever stop drinking? Try it, you might make sense to others.
I don’t give a fuck what you think. And people are tired of your boring hero stories of your time in the Army. You lead your life the way you want to and do what you want to.
By the way, I am a veteran, I am older than you, smarter than you, probably better looking, and not such a negative son-of-a-bitch. And I don’t have to keep telling everyone on a day-to-day basis.
Go fuck yourself, if you can find your old dried up dick.
I’m tired of you and your type broadcasting that you have a fucking CWP and pack all the time. Insecure and scared are you????
No doubt you are older than me (but probably not by much – I’m 62 going on 63….)
Since you’re older than me what possibly makes you think that my dick is old and dried up? Tell you what….why don’t you blow me and find out……….
Take some Viagra and go fondle your pea-shooter (that ought to take the edge off a little)
Ask Shifty, Sic-Semper, Mauldin, and Mother Tiger if I’m so damn negative plus I’m as sober as the day is long and that all vets don’t think alike which just proves that you don’t have a clue.
I got news for you. Why don’t you ignore me like I ignore you except when you post a response to my entry.
If you are tired of reading my entries, just ignore them. I read very few of yours.
If you are tired of reading my posts, then don’t. It’s simple, there are some people that post here that I don’t read and I imagine some do the same to me. And that is OK, I am not posting here here with the intentions of keeping a broad spectrum of the posters happy with my posts. Your problem with me is of your own making, accept that people are different and not everyone agrees with you. Just keep in mind, you are allowing me to get you upset, that is your problem, not mine.
And besides who made you the arbiter of what is to be posted here. Get over it, this is an open forum, not a blog that has to refrain from pissing you off. I read much here that I disagree with, but none of it is allowed to piss me off. That is your problem not mine, get over it.
If you are “ignoring” me why the fuck did you reply to my rational posting???
You’re the one who is upset not me
Take a valium or the premeds for Alzheimer’s…. talk to your health provider about Zyprexia to start with…………..
People celebrating their second amendment rights? real offensive….
Darwinism knows no socio-economic distinctions.
https://www.aei.org/publication/chart-of-the-day-more-guns-less-gun-violence-between-1993-and-2013/
Interesting that someone who appears to have pistols would use a shotgun in a close quarter combat scenario. That is, IF, things went down the way his lawyer says they did.
My first impression was T-Rav and his body guards …..
Wanna see me do a line off my Smith and Wesson? Hold my beer!
Seal Team Derp
+10
Seal Team Queer.
10+
STEPHENSON is going down. I wouldn’t want to tangle with a 13th Circuit Solicitor Wilkins whose family is steeped in political connections that cry out, “convict this patsy to firm up my conservative, tough on crime bona fides!”
Solicitor Wilkins may be our next Governor (or anything he wants if you ask me). His daddy, former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and former Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission Judge “Billy” Wilkins, certainly would agree.
http://www.nexsenpruet.com/professionals/william-wilkins
Stephenson would have been better off hiring an off duty cop for estate security. It is perfectly legal to do that.
http://www.scag.gov/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/keel-m-a-os-9732-3-17-14-hire-off-duty-police-officers-private-security-00272935xD2C78.pdf
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Your little Trump graphic is fucked up. Why am I not surprised?
Nikki could have gotten a job anywhere in the Trump Hotel Empire but she reached for the secret too soon; tried for the moon.
“…..Solicitor Wilkins may be our next Governor…..”
For an individual who can walk on water I cannot understand why he would settle for such a Cockroach Job
Oh, that’s right, he is a Fuckin’ Cockroach
I’m tellin’ ya – it’s a gay lover gone bad situation. Look those dorks. If they ain’t gay, I’m not Rocky Verdad.
So Rocky, do you think someone was trying to move in on someone else’s girl, Bill?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LRw_j7fXFCc
:-D
No, I think one queer was walking across the lawn looking for another queer, but taht queer was coked and liquored up, took his gun and shot the first queer, thinking he was getting robbed, and then called his gay attorney. That’s what I think, but what do I know. But given those gay posed pictures…… they don’t look like the sorts of boys who like……..here it comes……….I’m gonna say it this time…….the sorts of boys………who like……..meat curtains.
Rocky, you’re gay now? Want to make out?
I got no problem with that. If they are in to each-other, that just leaves that many more women, and meat curtains, for old farts like me.
Or tacos and oysters for that matter…………..
I don’t think a girl played anything to do with the situation.
They are so drunk that they could not hit a bull in the ass with a bass fiddle.
They are holding them like children hold toys. What an embarrassment. Maybe they shot the person by accident, who would even know?
Only Stupidson knows and his lawyer is telling him, in detail, exactly what he remembers.
Looking at Matt Whitman’s public Google page – he appears to have a love of Native American culture, mediation and the hots for a woman in Mauritius.
I just came up with a name for Stephenson’s house:
“Castle Douchebag”
what about the coroner saying that Whitman died from “multiple shots”
According to a woman who Whitman had a thing for, he was shot 3 times. She posted that info on one of news station’s comments section. Same woman who lives in Mauritius and Whitman was telling that he loved and missed her.
And The Greenville News reported:
The autopsy showed that “multiple” shots had been fired, but the coroner said he couldn’t say how many or where the wounds were while the investigation is ongoing. Toxicology tests were done but the results are not complete, he said.
Would they do toxicology tests on Stephenson too? The cops sure seem to be tight lipped about any details 5 days after the fact.
wyff4 updated –
When WYFF News 4’s Corey Davis asked for more information, Douglas said that per the sheriff, everything is on hold and no more information will be released as investigators work.
Douglas did say a decision on a possible charge will be made “sooner than later.”
WYFF News 4 has requested the incident report and 911 calls from the under the Freedom of Information Act.
WYFF News 4 also contacted Whitman’s family members. They said they are not ready to talk about the shooting, but they have a lot of questions about what happened.
He ain’t missin’ her now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubKUP8c0FHE
You got that right.
pew pew pew.
“Keep Greenville Weird”
Just a point of curiosity; are they holding real guns or perhaps air-soft or similar devices? Whatever photo posting format Fits is now using, I can’t get it to work and view larger versions of the pics.
Air-soft guns, paint ball guns and other fake guns have an orange tip on the end. But they are easily removable.
The hop-skip-jumping has stopped — at least for now! Try saving it and then edit it….
Buy a new monitor, cheapskate.
On a phone.
Get a phone with pinching zoom. It’s 2016.
Or Will could meet the needs of his readers – just because it’s 2016 doesn’t mean you need to be a douch.
Chill out, pops. Take a nap or something.
You dang whipper snapper. Get off my lawn or I’ll call the cops.
There we go :-)
I have that but it doesn’t work on the crappy pics they are using on here, now.
@FITS – the phrase “Making big sweet dollars selling clothing to frat boys and sorority girls” makes is sound like Mr. Stephenson was not making an honest living.
It’s honest in that the people are willingly buying his clothes. Sewing together pieces of fabric is something children in sweatshops on the other side of the world do, though. He’s providing a price-inflated product to gullible idiots through the magic of trendy hipster consumerism.
Perhaps he can be credited with his legal exploitation of the mentally handicapped who think boat shoes are the pinnacle of fashion, but his contributions towards the advancement of mankind aren’t much higher than that of the janitor who cleans his shitter.
Having purchased many items of this clothing brand over the years, I can tell you that the fabric, design, workmanship and even the thread is superior to cheaper brands.
What are you, Mrs. Banana Republic?
She not banana, she papaya. He banana.
Did you happen to get one of the obnoxious bow ties with a matching obnoxious sunglass strap? Standard issued douche gear.
Wow, his sweatshop factories can put together nicer stuff than you can find at Walmart?
I came this close to being impressed: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=distance+of+betelgeuse+to+earth
The one on the left is checking his ear bud to make sure he has picked up the correct orders from Command Central
Yes, he says to the one on his left, it is a go, I repeat it is a go, you have the green light to take out the Toad on the rock
I would not want to be in the same county with that group of drunk fuckers in the woods with guns.
Am I only the only dumbass who is no longer able to click on the pics Will inserts in the stories? Nothing but black screens come up, and half the time it locks up my Chrome. I have to right click and open them in a new window every time, which is OK but slightly annoying…
Why are you choosing to keep running a story that no else is picking up, is it because he is a successful young entrepreneur whose clothing company caters to frat bros? You have one serious bone to pick with greek life. #hatemuch?
Dude. Look at those pictures. Why the hell would he NOT run with this?
STATEMENT BY THE FAMILY OF MATTHEW WHITMAN
Matt Whitman was a brilliant, loving, kind and gentle son, brother and uncle, and our family is heartbroken by our loss of him. While we do not know why Matt was on that property on Saturday, he did not have a criminal record and we have never observed him being violent or threatening to any person. We therefore trust and expect that law enforcement will thoroughly investigate the circumstances that led to Matt’s death at the hands of another person. We ask that the public respect our family’s privacy during this time of tremendous grief, and that members of the press refrain from contacting us. We will have no further comment at this time.