“This remark is bizarre. You speak of “irrational” and potentially vicious creature and then state that they flee and continue to do so. That sounds predictable to me, if not rational.”
On the contrary, the dog was barking mad. From the description of the account from the guy, the dog was completely bat shit crazy. When dogs bark, especially 60 pounders, it is a scary sight and sound. The guy was a legal gun owner with no felony in the past. Now the guy exercises his right and it will be branded a hardened criminal? For shooting a barking big dog?
“Here’s an analogy to the situation: if a bad guy comes in your house and you shoot him, no problem. But if he’s on the other side of the threshold and you shoot him in the back, you go to jail.”
The only difference is that the dog is NOT a “guy”. It is a damn dog.
“...He can provide no evidence that it threatened him, has no witnesses to verify his claims, discharged a firearm in the proximity of other houses, and intended to destroy a neighbors pet.”
That is for the court to decide, but a felony for damaging a potentially dangerous and out of control property?
It is akin to your neighbor’s car rolling off their drive way about to run over your kid, then you shoot its tires out to stop it. Then the guy shooting gets charged with felony? How is that fair?
A *barking* dog is not a “scary” sight to rational adults, whether male or female. A barking dog is a barking dog.
Those who are frightened of *barking* dogs are typically criminal-minded—barking dogs give away their location, and even their intentions.
You need to get some help for your fear.
A “mad” dog will not be *barking*. You have failed to do your homework and it shows.
The legal gun owner has a felony *now*. He should have thought with his brain as opposed to his marble-sized pair.
I suggest you properly educate yourself about dogs and possibly, seek professional help for your cynophobia.
Actually, in that analogy, *your* kid is trespassing on *their* property if *their* car in *their* driveway is endangering your kid because of *your* failure to keep *your* kid contained and supervised.
And what kind of parent *are* you if *you* permit your kid, who lacks the common sense to *stay away* from driveways when cars are moving in or out of them, to wander off into someone else’s driveway?
By the way, if you shoot out the tires, you have damaged their property, endangered *your* child (child neglect, improper supervision of a child), and have fired your weapon in a residential location, endangering the lives of other citizens, including your child. (You stand a good chance of missing the tires and hitting your own kid, genius, and if you’re close enough to hit the tires with 100% accuracy, you should be close enough to keep your own kid in your own yard.
In essence, in using your example, you advocate a solution worse, and more criminal, than the criminal “solution” used by the the trespassing neighbor in this article. I hope you are NOT a parent if you suppose this is a “reasonable” comparison.
And keep your kid on your property. Within arm’s reach, if you really don’t understand why your hypothetical would be legally *your* fault.
I went to buy food for my snakes tonight.
The guy’s 60+ pound Pit rushed at me barking and growling as I entered the house.
I said “Good dog!”, ignored it and went down to his snake room.
BFD.
Maybe some folks just don’t spook easy.
Shoot my “damn dog” and find out for sure if there’s an afterlife.