Tag: shotgun

Human beings can be frightened…little animals…

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At The Outdoorsman of Santa Fe, which bills itself as Northern New Mexico’s largest firearm retailer, shotguns and ammunition were flying off the shelves.

“That rack is usually full of basic pump-action shotguns — all gone,” salesman Jay Winton said last week as he pointed to an empty rack in the store at DeVargas Center. “People … want to defend their home from the ravening hordes that they’re convinced are coming, so we’re selling lots of ammunition, lots of firearms.”

Winton said a couple came into the store about a week ago specifically talking about the coronavirus.

“They wanted to have a shotgun in the house for when the infrastructure collapses,” he said. “Human beings can be frightened, dirty little animals when they get scared, and that’s kind of what we’re seeing right now.”

Winton is no expert, but the professionals agree.

Two things:

1. This is excerpted from a long article about EVERYTHING associated with the confusion over COVID-19. This segment is just at the end.

2. You may as well understand I’m neither anti-gun nor anti-gun ownership. Before I moved West I lived in an area reknowned as the Arsenal of America. I grew up with firearms, My extended family always had someone working in gun manufacturing. Because of that history, I grew up handling guns, understanding use and abuse of firearms, respecting the need for required regulation of manufacture and ownership by consumers. That last bit is unfortunately missing in portions of the United States.

I’m still a gun owner. Used to love handgun target shooting. Haven’t hunted in decades; but, I still own a few guns including a very nice 12-gauge shotgun. And people who buy firearms in a panic…governed by fear…scare the crap out of me!

Dog shoots owner in the foot — Yes, the dog is named Trigger

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A dog named Trigger shot his 25-year-old owner in the foot in a bizarre accident that had Indiana officials on Monday reminding hunters to take safety lessons.

Allie Carter of Avilla was wounded during a waterfowl hunt on Saturday morning at the Tri-County Fish and Wildlife Area in northern Indiana…

She laid her 12-gauge shotgun on the ground while repositioning herself and her 11-year-old chocolate Labrador stepped on the gun, depressing the trigger, said Indiana Conservation Officer Jonathon Boyd.

The safety of the shotgun was not on, so it went off and Carter was shot in the left foot…

Carter, who had never completed a hunter education course, was hospitalized. She suffered non-life-threatening injuries from the bird shot pellets and was treated and released, Boyd said.

Indiana officials said that users of firearms should always point the muzzle in a safe direction and use the safety mechanism. Anyone born after Dec. 31, 1986 is required to take a certified hunter education course before purchasing a hunting license in Indiana.

However, anyone can get up to three apprentice hunter’s licenses without taking such a course, if accompanied by a person who has taken it, Boyd said. Carter had an apprentice license and does not face any charges…

Carter could not be reached for comment.

What is there to say – anyway?

Colorado town considering drone hunting licenses

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The farming and ranching town of Deer Trail, Colorado, which boasts that it held the world’s first rodeo in 1869, is now considering starting a 21st century tradition – paying bounties to anyone who shoots down an unmanned drone.

Next month, trustees of the town of 600 that lies on the high plains 55 miles east of Denver will debate an ordinance that would allow residents to purchase a $25 hunting license to shoot down “unmanned aerial vehicles.”

Similar to the bounties governments once paid to hunters who killed animals that preyed on livestock, but only after they produced the ears, the town would pay $100 to anyone who can produce the fuselage and tail of a downed drone.

“Either the nose or tail may be damaged, but not both,” the proposal notes.

The measure was crafted by resident Phillip Steel, a 48-year-old Army veteran with a master’s degree in business administration, who acknowledges the whimsical nature of his proposal…

“We don’t want to become a surveillance society,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

He said he has not seen any drones, but that “some local ranchers” outside the town limits have seen them.

Under the proposal, hunters could legally shoot down a drone flying under 1,000 feet with a 12-gauge or smaller shotgun.

The town also would be required to establish a drone “recognition program” for shooters to properly identify the targeted aircraft…

The Feds haven’t commented, yet. No doubt the NRA, Republicans and the Tea Party will campaign for the proposal.

9-year-old girl in Halloween costume shot – mistaken for a skunk

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Of course – anyone could see the resemblance…

A little girl wearing a black-and-white Halloween costume was mistaken for a skunk and shot by a relative at a party, police in Pennsylvania said.

The 9-year-old was hit in the shoulder but was alert and talking as she was taken to a hospital in Pittsburgh after the incident Saturday night in New Sewickley Township according to the Beaver County Times…

According to media reports, the girl, wearing a black hat with a white tassel, was hiding over the edge of a hill outside the house where the party was taking place when she was spotted by a relative about 8:30 p.m. Thinking the distant figure was a skunk, he fired a shotgun.

Police did not name the girl or identify the shooter or his relationship to her. Authorities told the Beaver County Times that it was not clear if charges would be filed against the shooter, who apparently had not been drinking alcohol.

News of the incident sparked a flurry of comments on the newspaper’s website touching on both gun rights and animal rights. “Really, just leave the animals alone. The thing is outside at night, where do you expect them to be? Was he worried that a skunk was going to break into his car? Peep into his windows?” one reader posted.

Several questioned the wisdom of pulling out a loaded gun at a gathering with children, while others questioned the wisdom of allowing a young girl to be out alone after dark. “Who was chaperoning this party? And who in their right mind shoots a skunk in the vicinity of their home? Everything about this story just stinks,” someone wrote.

Most just expressed shock that anyone could mistake a 9-year-old child for a skunk. “Just a bit confused here. Are 9-year-olds that small or are there really really big skunks in that area,” wrote another reader.

Most states with concealed-carry laws requires applicants for a license to pass a gun safety course. Otherwise, any idiot who hasn’t broken the law – too often – can buy a gun.

Keeping it at hand to shoot a skunk or a little girl, I guess.

Going too far with – “Get off my lawn!”

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An angry homeowner apparently had better aim than a Nevada golfer whose errant ball broke the window of a home that overlooks the course.

Jeff Fleming, 53, of Reno is accused of opening fire with a shotgun on a golfing twosome, hitting one man who was treated at a hospital and released…

Fleming was taken into custody at a local attorney’s office where he fled following the shooting, Reno police said in a statement.

Fleming was booked into the Washoe County jail on suspicion of battery and assault with a deadly weapon…and later released on bail.

Police say he opened fire at the 16th hole of Reno’s Lakeridge Golf Course after one of the golfers shattered a window of his house with a ball. Fleming, whose home overlooks the course, had a verbal argument with the golfers before the shooting, police said.

Authorities shut down and evacuated the course after the shooting. Witness accounts led officers to Fleming’s residence, which they surrounded before he surrendered at the attorney’s office.

The majority of golf course homes usually are bought by folks who don’t play golf. They purchase because they’re looking for quiet, serenity, fresh air, something that appreciates in value over time.

They should also realize the potential danger of property damage from lousy golfers. 🙂

Farmer on mobility scooter shot trespassers – by accident. Ayup.

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A farmer unwittingly shot two suspected burglars who were allegedly targeting a cannabis factory, which he didn’t know existed, on his property.,,However, he found himself arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after two men who had ventured on to his land turned up in hospital with gunshot wounds.

The farmer says he had no idea he had injured the men until 16 armed police stormed his home in Crays Hill, Essex, later that day.

Edward Tibbs, 62, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and neuralgia, told detectives he had been awoken by the sound of geese and, after going outside on his mobility scooter, had shot three times into the dark, believing he was firing at a fox.

“It was an accident as far as I am concerned. I was out shooting that night on my land and apparently two people got shot there,” he said.

This is not someone I would want for a neighbor here in rural New Mexico. You don’t shoot at an animal – or a person – unless you can see what you’re firing at.

“I didn’t know anyone had been hit. If I did, I would have called the police. Apparently they went to hospital and police were called and they said where it happened. It happened at 4am, but the first I knew about it was when the police came…”

Police later discovered that a cannabis factory had been set up in a rented outbuilding on Mr Tibbs’s farm and it was thought that the two men were attempting to burgle it when they were shot.

Mr Tibbs, who said he had no knowledge of the cannabis plants, was later released without charge.

The injured men, from Basildon, were arrested on suspicion of possessing a firearm but were also released without charge. Two women who were arrested in connection with the discovery of 50 cannabis plants were also freed after questioning.

1. Way too many coincidences.

2. Is there a medical marijuana program in the UK? Mr. Tibbs sounds like he qualifies.

An animal lover who hunts and kills her holiday turkey

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My Christmas dinner was up in one of those trees. It was snowing lightly on a minus-two-degree dawn, and I was lying on my belly bundled in white camo, pointing the muzzle of a Benelli 12-gauge through a cluster of fireweed.

The cold hurt my hands in a way I wondered if I should worry about. In front of me, a snow-coated field stretched for 500 yards to a line of bare trees silhouetted against a blush of sunrise. The trees’ branches were dotted with roosting turkeys, and their occasional gobbles carried back across the field to where I waited, breathing into my face mask.

Next to me, rising on his knees to better see the birds, was Brent Lawrence, a friend who worked for the National Wild Turkey Federation, a nonprofit conservation group. We were hunting together outside the town of Kearney, Nebraska, for three days in December — one of which had already passed.

Now he tapped my shoulder and pointed: The dots had started flapping to the ground, and single-file lines of birds were bobbing into the field, their chatter echoing in the cold air. I took a deep breath and adjusted my grip on the gun.

I’d started hunting a few years before, shocking everyone who knew me…My reformative logic went like this: For every turkey wrap or club sandwich I’d ever eaten, something had been killed for my benefit — I’d just never done the killing myself. The deer hunt invitation seemed an opportunity, a challenge even, to reclaim my place in the food chain by assuming responsibility for the meat on my plate…

Gradually the turkeys spread out, and one wandered a little closer to us. It pecked at the ground, then raised its head and stood perfectly still for one moment. I squeezed the trigger.

The blast of the gun is always a bit of a surprise — more like something that happens to me than something I initiate. All at once, my ears were ringing, the turkey was thrashing in the snow, and Brent and I were racing down the hill toward it.

“Don’t worry; it’s dead,” he shouted. Though its wings were flapping, its head was limp on the ground. I wanted to look away but didn’t — this was part of my responsibility.

RTFA. Read the whole article.

I think anyone who’s hunted has wandered through the same maze of ethic and emotion. This is a serious piece of existential reflection whether you hunt or not, eat like a typical omnivore or restrictive vegan.

Enjoyable writing and reading from someone worth reading.

Your local copper’s favorite booth at CES 2010

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The TASER X12 includes Radial™ Ammunition Key technology to prevent the system from deploying lethal 12-gauge rounds in order to remove the possibility of end users accidentally firing a lethal round in a less-lethal system during high stress situations.

No other system on the market today prevents the operator from inadvertently deploying a lethal round. In addition, it incorporates a uniquely designed twist, rifled barrel that optimizes the performance of the XREP, ensuring that an optimum spin rate is imparted upon the projectile as it exits the barrel to ensure the greatest distance, stabilization, and accuracy possible.

More bang for the buck is always an easy sell.