Posted on 04/05/2013 5:48:14 AM PDT by Gorilla44
CATAWBA COUNTY, N.C. —
He looks like a typical 7-year-old boy, but on Tuesday night, Sam Grant is facing charges that many adults never will.
He is charged with two felonies for something that happened when his mother turned her back for just a second. His parents told Eyewitness News that they're outraged.
"We are both just shocked. We have been in a state of shock over this," said Ray Robbins.
Sam's parents said this scenario began in February when Sam was playing outside with his BB gun. They said he began shooting at an abandoned house right across the street, but instead, Sam shot two cars as they were passing by.
Sam's mother, Cherry Robbins, immediately called the Catawba County Sheriff's Department.
"The officer told me he did not want to charge my son, the lady told me she did not want him charged. The next thing I know, I am getting a letter from the DPS saying he has been charged with two felonies," said Cherry.
Sam is charged with two felony counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle. If convicted he faces one year probation and hundreds of hours of community service.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsoctv.com ...
Catawba County officials need a good FReeping.
An avalanche of emails and bad national publicity made Piedmont, Oklahoma, a laughingstock for ticketing a 3-year old for peeing in his front yard. The city council and mayor backed down after the light was shown on their ridiculousness.
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My gosh! What if someone gave the kid a Pop Tart and he nibbled it into a shape vaguely resembling ... a hand gun????
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The point is not about justice but to get another person, particularly a childl, in the system. Justice in this country is mostly an industry.
Actually it’s stupidity run amok which in turn represents what America has become.
A good ass whopping, grounding the kid and taking his BB gun away for a short while would be sufficient... lesson learned.
My guess is the parents will be held accountable, potentially unfit and the child removed and turned over to social services, local idiots will be up in arms (non-lethal of course and I’ll be reprimanded for using the term up in arms) a ban will be implemented on BB guns, a court will award the owner of the car several million in emotional damages, compensation for loss of work and then be awarded disability benefits from the government for PTSD.
Well, of course, this kid being charged with two felonies is ridiculous. All the same, why weren’t the parents supervising him more closely?
The dad posted a comment.
We did not allow him to shoot at the house across the street. He was in our very large back yard shooting at his targets with his mother supervising. She stepped inside for long enough to put food in the oven for dinner, and trusted him to stay in the back yard with his targets. He was told to wait until she returned before he shot again. He did not wait. His mom and I agree, we made mistakes in terms of leaving him unattended. It will never happen again. He has been punished over and over for this, the damages were paid in full in less than 3 days after the incident. The person that owns the abandoned house which is about to fall down, I have known for over 15 years. He is already doing community service at our order with our church (cleaning, etc) to repay us for what we came out of pocket for. His bb gun is not a high powered model, it is a Red Ryder spring operated bb gun, 300-400 feet per second at most is the muzzle velocity. I agree that at that power it can still hurt someone easily. For those of you that are so perfect with such perfect children that are passing judgement on us for our mistake, I invite you to come to our home and see how well behaved our son is. Friend me on Facebook and you will see that we are good people who love our son very much. The only reason we got the news involved was because we have a huge problem with the word FELONY that has been put upon our son. We would gladly accept the charges instead of our son, unfortunately, I don’t think that will be a possibility. After the incident occurred, the authorities were called immediately and it was reported by us. Those of you that are accusing us of being terrible parents and calling our son a demon, please, know more about what you are talking about before you comment. I am shocked at some of the things that are being said here by fellow American people. My child is not a mean or malicious person, he is curious about everything. I am not condoning what he did in any way. I am just saying, people make mistakes unlike a lot of the perfect people that come out of the woodwork when something like this happens. I hope this clears up some of the confusion and changes the way people are looking at this terrible situation. If you have any more questions, call me! 704.691.9316, that is my personal cell phone number, I will gladly talk with anyone about what happened. Friend me on Facebook, message me, I will gladly take time to defend the honor of my family. Thank you.
Age 17, enlistment questionaire; "Ever been convicted of a felony? .. Explain"
Age 21, job application; "Ever been convicted of a felony? .. Explain"
Marriage license, college entry papers, ANY application for ANYthing ...
"Ever been convicted of a felony? .. Explain"
The sick part of this whole thing?
There really ARE people that think, "Welll ... serves him right, shouldn't've done that"
It's a damned good thing no one saw (or if they did never turned me in) chase Paula Taylor after school and flip up her dress to see her panties back in ... what? ... 1955 or 6
(I was about 7 years old)
Wait a minute. I thought ineffectiveness and habitual drunkenness were hallmarks of a successful career politician.
Wow,
Just thinking from a mental development perspective. Did the Child even understand that it was wrong to shoot at cars?
In this case, the parents were dumb to put a BB gun into the hands of a 7 year old kid. Not without being certain he is mature enough to handle it responsibly.
Parents messed up, kid gets a felony charge which will ruin his life. This whole scenario is a case of cruel and unusual punishment.
I did much the same thing when I was a lad....but with a homemade slingshot. Bike tire tube and a nice piece of "Y" shaped hickory. I aimed at and hit a moving vehicle. The occupant was a large young man. He chased me down and when he caught me he lifted me by the collar so we were face to face. He said, "Let me drive you home kid."
My father was not pleased, made me apologize and then proceeded to tan my hide with the slingshot. This seemed to placate the young man and all parties involved seemed satisfied with the outcome. Except my arse that is.
While the DOJ can’t find anything to charge Jon Corzine with........
Maybe not. But in the long run, a felony conviction on his record will not serve him well. Probably no chance of getting a CCW permit. Probably not much luck getting a good job. Plenty of other consequences. His parents need to get a top notch attorney and get this case dismissed or at least an acquittal.
We tried to hit big trucks, but never hit anything ... trajectory and all that math was SO far from us.
We gave up when we ran out of marbles.
These days it's star war battles with roman candles and other fellow 60 plus year olds ...
/8^)
When I was a kid we chose up sides and had serious BB gun wars.
No one ever got hurt but it wasn't because we didn't try.We grew up on news reports, movies and comics about WWII and the Korean War so we were just
normal blood-thirsty, red-blooded American kids training to fight the Japs, Krauts, Gooks and Chinks.Back then grown men didn't pee their pants over a cloud shaped like a sideways letter "L".
Good link, thanks. So the BB gun is not a “dangerous firearm” in Catawba county.
Just part of the continuing war on the “gun culture”. Punish kids for drawing guns, making guns from pop tarts, pointing finger guns, shooting BB guns, etc. Brainwash kids that only the government should have guns, anyone else with one is a potential criminal/mass murderer. Make parents afraid to get that first BB gun for their kid so they never develop an interest in shooting. “My gosh, junior might end up with a felony if he’s out in the yard with a BB gun and a cop comes by.” The left want as many people as possible to loathe and fear guns and gun owners.
Apparently doesn’t matter.
The guy who works at the WallyWorld sporting department showed us an air rifle that looks sort of like an AR15.
He said a cop told him if that he saw somebody with it, he’d shoot them.
Nice.
There’s also Walther P99 clone air pistol.
I thought about buying one for plinking on the ridge but now, maybe not.
I just called the dad to find out how I could help and he told me they went to court this morning and all charges have been dismissed. News crews are at his house right now waiting for his statement.
Kid was shooting in the direction of the road, and a house. Even if there was a "legitimate" target involved, there should be a way to catch / smother any misses or ricochets. So, IMO, and from the limited info in this article, kid wasn't being safe.
What was the Mom thinking? When WBill Jr. is shooting, I don't let him out of my sight, even "just for a second". Sure, he'd likely be fine, but mistakes happen.
Finally, the gun needs to be taken away from the kid, IMO, for reasons #1 and #2. If I did something like this at his age, I'd have lost the gun (likely for good) and wouldn't be able to sit down for a week, to boot.
But a felony charge? Methinks that the prosecutor is looking to see his name in the paper.
That’s great news! So glad you could get in touch w them!
HOW could a felony charge occur, given the detailed legal exclusion of Catawba?
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