ONLY TRAINED PROFESSIONALS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO CARRY GUNS: Sevier County officer’s gun discharge takes out store’s frozen bologna. “The .40-caliber round went through a 15-inch computer screen, continued into a nearby cooler and lodged itself in lunchmeat inside the cooler, Hodges said.”

UPDATE: Reader Mark Ferrigno writes:

Couple of things about the sheriff’s deputy firing his weapon into Bologna”

1. When I read “suspended without pay” I mistakenly assumed that mean while an investigation was carried out and while the department determined if he would be fired or not. What I did not expect was the “suspension” was for 18 hours.

A trained law enforcement officer fires his own weapon in a public place accidently and his punishment is 18 hours unpaid and “retraining”

2. Are Police Officers immune from gun laws the rest of us have to follow? As law professor can you answer this? Are they theoretically covered under the myriad of guns laws that are imposed on law abiding citizens? I am guessing that if a concealed carry permit holder “accidently” shot a PC screen and Bologna charges would be forth coming and he would most likely never see that weapon again, nor his permit.

Well, they might not be so harsh in Sevier County.