A South Carolina sheriff who has called for women to be armed isn’t backing down after one of his deputies accidentally shot a female student during a concealed handgun class.

At a press conference over the weekend, Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright explained that Deputy Skip Smith should have checked to make sure that Crystal Smith’s .22 caliber pistol was unloaded.

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The officer was in the process of showing Smith, who is married to another deputy, how to grip the handgun when it discharged and a bullet went through her arm and into her side.

“The instructor should have checked the pistol,” Wright admitted. “He didn’t do it. It was just a mistake.”

After an attempted rape last year, the sheriff began encouraging more women to pack heat.

“Our form of justice is not making it,” he said at the time. “Carry a concealed weapon. That’ll fix it.”

“Liberals call me and tell me the chain-gang form of justice isn’t working. Well, let me inform you, your form of justice isn’t working either.”

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Watch this video from WSPA, broadcast Feb. 19, 2012.