Local machine gun cases on the rise, Beaufort County officials say
Incidents involving machine guns are on the rise in the Lowcountry.
Even though Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner has still not specified the kinds of weapon used in the Oct. 12 mass shooting that killed four and injured 15 others on St. Helena Island, he and the county’s top prosecutor are sounding a broader alarm about the growing use of machine guns.
“No one should possess a machine gun,” Tanner said during a press conference days after the shooting. Those who heard the shots fired in the early morning hours at Willie’s Bar and Grill on St. Helena Island said the gun fire sounded “like a machine gun,” and bar owner Willie Turral likened the noise to a “wartime gun.”
South Carolina law defines a “machine gun” as any gun that’s been manufactured or modified so it fires more than one round with a single pull of the trigger.
Cases involving machine guns have drastically increased in the past decade in the five-county region covered by the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office. There were 51 cases in Allendale, Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties in 2024 and so far in 2025. The 10 years prior saw a combined 50 cases.
“We have had more machine gun cases made by law enforcement in the circuit in the past two years than we had in the previous 10 put together,” said Solicitor Duffie Stone.
Much of this growth has come from Beaufort County, according to the data. More than 65% of the circuit’s machine gun cases and half of the circuit’s incoming warrants so far this year came from Beaufort County.
Notably, Anferny Freeman, who was charged with four counts of murder in connection to the shooting, was also charged with possession of a machine gun stemming from a separate prior incident, according to police.
Both the sheriff and the solicitor highlighted how “switches” are becoming more accessible. Switches are conversion devices that allow legal semi-automatic handguns to be converted to fire as machine guns. Any device that converts a weapon into a machine gun has been illegal since 1990, according to the South Carolina Daily Gazette.
Low bond amounts
During the press conference, Tanner condemned what he views as “ridiculous” bond amounts in machine gun cases. A suspect not connected to the St. Helena shooting, he said, walked out of jail on a $30,000 bond, just $10,000 of which was tied to a machine gun charge.
“We chase them every week, every weekend,” Tanner said of suspects who quickly bond out on similar charges.
Stone said that there’s no clear answer to reversing the increase in machine gun cases, but also said strengthening the state’s gang statute would be a meaningful start. Two-thirds of the 37 defendants charged with machine gun possession in the circuit this year were either gang members or gang-associated, he said.
And in South Carolina, the current gang statute is ineffective and rarely used, he said. He contrasted this with neighboring states like North Carolina and Georgia, which have state-level RICO acts that allow prosecution of entire criminal organizations.
