signs

matt slaby has a well edited and photographed slideshow up at time.com on america's love for and fascination of guns. the majority of owners, by far, understand the responsibility that comes with owning a firearm and respect the lethal power at their fingertips.

and then you have someone like Robert Stewart who walked into Pinelake Health and Rehab in Carthage, NC with numerous guns and killed 8 elderly residents while wounding 3 including a police officer before that officer shot and wounded him.

i was sent down the day after it happened to try and get the requisite mugshot of the assailant, cover the press conference and maybe speak to some of the families who lost loved ones if they weren't put off by the horde of local and national press that invaded with their satellite trucks and fleeting interest in a small community in the middle of the country.

as usual... access to almost everything that would make for a more poignant photo was restricted. and the little that we got was through dumb fortune and tender persistance.

but as i was leaving the unattended home of mr. stewart (after getting the pre-req house mug) i spotted this down his dirt driveway. i wasn't able to investigate long enough to find shells, but the reporter did... finding some small calibre and small and large shotgun shells.

though we don't know mr. stewart's m.o. or mental capacity, for me it was the most storytelling photo of the day.