As Obama once said “just words“, meaning that words can have a big impact
(KOIN) A Vancouver man who fired a shotgun to chase away alleged car prowlers pleaded not guilty Wednesday and cited Vice President Joe Biden as the reason he did this.
Jeffery Barton, 52, pleaded not guilty to one count of illegal aiming or discharging a firearm at his arraignment in Clark County Court. (snip)
Outside the courtroom Wednesday, Barton cited the vice president in defense of his actions.
“I did what Joe Biden told me to do,†Barton told KOIN. “I went outside and fired my shotgun in the air.â€
Barton was referring to a question and answer session the vice president had in February.
“If you want to protect yourself, get a double-barreled shotgun,†Biden said at the time.
“I said ‘Jill, if there’s ever a problem, just walk out on the balcony here … put that double-barreled shotgun and fire two blasts outside the house,’†Biden added.
Problem being, the law there doesn’t allow someone to just fire off a blast or two unless there is a self defense component while fearing for one’s life. Still, it’s a hell of a defense. “The VP told me to do this” to which he should add “the Pres told me words have meaning”.
Of course, as gotwww points out in the comments: “Any gun owner that takes advise from Biden SHOULD have his guns taken away.”
Bubba Zooka notes “I thought you were suppose to urinate on yourself. Oh, that’s rape. Never mind.” Well, one might as well do that, because by the time the police show up the car would be broken into and stuff stolen, or the vehicle would be stolen. Personally, I’m not really thrilled by the though of someone discharging a shotgun within a neighborhood to scare people off, could cause more problems depending on where the shots go, but a citizen should be allowed to protect his property, home, and family, and, Barton did not shoot at the perps. One person in the comments notes that he keeps a blank in the chamber. That has its good points and bad points, but perhaps within cities it’s not a bad idea, if you’re able to squeeze the trigger a second time if necessary quickly.
Your concern over discharging a shotgun in a city is misplaced. Within a short distance, the pellets have lost potential for harm. A shotgun in only effective a close range. Now, consider what the cops did in Boston. They fired hard cased bullets all over the place. It is a miracle that no one was injured and shows how poor fire discipline is in the police department and how our great hero’s can not control themselves and really don’t care for the safety of others.
A few problems with firing a shotgun as described. First, a woman in Florida did the same with a gun and is in jail for 20 years. Now that is a travesty of justice and one that should be looked into. Then, if you fire the gun, the crook likely knows you don’t have any live shells to fire at him. Also, most cops will tell you not to warn someone that you are armed. That only results in the bad guy knowing where you are and he can take a shot. If you have the drop on someone, shoot to kill. Then don’t do what Zimmerman did. You don’t talk to the cops, your lawyer does.
David, if you are referring to the black lady who is facing up to 20 years for discharging her firearm, and is pleading “stand your ground”, is not a good case example. First, she was inside a home. She was near her two kids. Second, she left the scene of argument, and then returned later with the gun firing it over the head of her husband.
However, when you fire a pellet or bullet up in the air, it goes up and then comes down at velocity. There are NUMEROUS examples of people being injured from falling ammo.
In this case, give him a ticket for $20 for discharge of weapon in city limits and call it good.
Both of you are right to an extent.
David is right in that pellets shot into the air don’t return to the earth at the same velocity at which they left the gun. The reason for this is that only gravity is working on the falling pellet which soon reaches “terminal velocity” at which point gravity cannot overcome the aerodynamic drag of the pellet.
Bullets have more mass so when they return to earth, the strike with more force. People that are injured by a falling bullet are hurt because of the force of the blow, not because the bullet penetrates the body.
Years ago I had a physics teacher who demonstrated this by firing a penny from a weapon. He had an instrument that measured the velocity of the penny as it left the barrel.
Using that data, ut was easy to figure out the force of the penny when it struck something 5 feet away. It was enough to fracture a human skull and kill that person.
In the othe hand, if you fired the gun straight into the air, the penny never had the energy to reach a height equal to that of the Empire State Building. But if you dropped a penny from the top of the Empire State Building, the penny never reaches a velocity where it could fracture a skull, much less kill a person.
Of course, that teacher and that experiment could never be done today even though it inspired a bunch of students.
On the Florida case, the woman was in the wrong for returning to the house, but Corey overcharged the case nonetheless. Also, as I remember (and I could be wrong) the man in the case that struck the woman and could not be in the home because of a restraining order was not charged with anything, which was a travesty as well.
As always, Gitarcarver makes the point more eloquently.
LOL… Mark Steyn mentioned this story on the Rush Limbaugh show today.