*Some clown in Sacramento was dragged into court.
He shot his lawnmower;
it disobeyed, it wouldn’t start
Might makes right, it’s the American way.
They fined him $60 and sent him on his way.
You know, some people don’t take no shit!
Maybe if they did they’d have half a brain left!*
[indent][indent][indent]-- Dead Kennedys, A Child And His Lawnmower[/indent][/indent][/indent]
Six years in prison for shooting his lawnmower? Who cares that he shot his lawnmower? If my neighbor shot his lawnmower, I’d think it was pretty funny.
What if your neighbor shot his lawnmower, and a miss or ricochet came through your window and killed a family member or pet?
Stupid people are bad enough. Drunk people are worse. Stupid, drunk people with firearms is something no one really wants next door, or indeed, in a several mile radius.
So it is. I still think it’s an unreasonable punishment for having a sawed-off shotgun but that’s another story. I’m not saying what the guy did was cool, but I think this is being blown out of proportion.
I’m pretty sure he’ll serve 3 tops. For a lunatic firing an illegal weapon, sounds about right to me. Mainly I just came here cuz I love that song and DK =D
26 USC § 5861Prohibited Acts defines violations of federal firearms statues, and 26 USC § 5871. Penalties specifies that penalties therefore are “…fined not more than $10,000, or be imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.” (Definitions of what qualifies as a “destructive device” are found in 26 USC § 5845. Definitions.)
I have a very limited amount of sympathy for someone who intentionally falls afoul of these laws, as arbitrary in some ways as they may be. I have zero sympathy for someone who gets caught doing so because he gets drunk and shoots an appliance out of rage. Q.E.D. does offer a plausible mitigating factor, so perhaps that is why he is only facing six years.
It reminds me of an SF short story where the main character ends up on a supposedly ideal planet. The first job he’s offered consists in engineering robots and household appliances that are more defective (very slow, irritatingly noisy, etc…), so that stressed people can discharge their frustration and anger by destroying the fucking defective robots.
(The story also has politicians with a bomb around their necks that any citizen can detonate at any moment, taxes don’t exist because the state is funded by stealing people at gunpoint, divorce doesn’t exist because spouse’s murder is legal, etc…)
