The new Governator: South Carolina's Nikki Haley test-fires machine guns and brags 'I did it in heels'



South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is known for shooting from the hip. On Friday the Republican politician turned that idiom into a reality during a tour of a gun manufacturing plant, firing 'quite a few' guns on an indoor range, including a fully-automatic military machine gun.

Look out Arnold. There's a new Governor Terminator in town.



'It was a good time,' she told reporters after putting holes in several paper targets. 'It was a good stress reliever - and I did it in heels!'

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Haley fired an M4A1 carbine on a range in Columbia, S.C. on Friday - one of the weapons FN Manufacturing makes for the National Guard unit in which her husband fights

Who was Haley imagining as she looked down the barrel at a set of paper bull's-eyes? She's not telling. But Governor Terminator's vetos might be taken more seriously in the state legislature from now on



Asked about what went through her mind as she pulled the triggers, she said, ' I imagined a lot of different people.'

But she's not naming names.

'That's my secret,' Haley said.

Haley toured FN Manufacturing in the state capital of Columbia. She has made political hay over luring another gun producer, PTR Industries, from the less gun-friendly state of Connecticut in June.

PTR said it planned its move after Connecticut passed stricter gun-control laws in reaction to the December 2012 shooting at an elementary school that left 20 children and six adults dead.

The fully automatic machine guns Haley tested out aren't available to the general public - just to military and law-enforcement customers - but FN's machined gun barrels are in several consumer-grade rifles



'For me, this was particularly personal,' the governor said on a video released by her office, 'because they manufacture the M4s, the M240s, the M249s - all of which Michael is using right now in Afghanistan.'

Michael Haley, her husband and the state's 'First Gentleman,' is currently on a one-year deployment to the Middle Eastern country with a National Guard unit. He left in January.



WIS-TV reported on Monday that the Columbia Police Department will soon be issuing FN-made 9mm pistols that are designed specifically for police officers.



Haley's office released a collection of photos on Facebook and a one-minute video on YouTube.



The company ' employ[s] 500+ people and have been a staple in our state for decades,' she boasted on Facebook.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said 'we have no comment' on Haley's firing range activity. Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the group run by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, did not respond to a request for comment.





