From ExTank’s link.
I don’t think the guy has a small residential lot and and shot from his front porch at the protesters in the street. I admit not having been to his place, but it wouldn’t surprise me if, given the location, the protestors were far enough away that dove shot wouldn’t even carry to their location. It has a fairly limited range.
It’s also conceiveable that he could have shot in the opposite direction, even towards the Bush ranch, and nothing but dirt would have been in range.
He’s on his private property where it is legal to shoot. He is shooting a shotgun in a safe direction presumably with dove loads. It’s not a backstop situation. It doesn’t have anywhere near the reach that a rimfire or centerfire pistol or rifle round. Just look at how many trap shooting ranges are built. Do you see a huge ass berms for all the folks shooting at clay pigeons in the air? There is also no evidence that he was intoxicated while doing it, which is illegal like shooting across the road.
All joking aside, it really does make me wonder what the neighbors had to put up with (in Brentwood) when OJ had daily crowds driving by his house.
Texans and Californians…both kinds of Americans that still get pissed when the status quo in their neighborhood is disrupted. This Californian can understand that much at least. Let the dude safely fire his shotgun on his property in his own form of protest. There’s much worse things I can think of that he could have done, but he chose not to do it.
If he has done this before on his property many other times before any protestors showed up, why do you think he needs to inform anyone on nearby public access? Is there a law that he has to inform anybody within a certain distance that he intends to shoot his shotgun (with limited range to begin with) on his own property?
Geez. All of you idiots giving this guy grief for shooting his gun should never ever ever visit the state of Texas. Particularly if you plan on leaving the city. It happens all the fucking time. It is not a particularly rare occurrence.
Now if he had fired it in an unsafe manner, then you’d have a real beef. But as has been pointed out above, the fellow in question did not fire it towards the protestors or the Prez. So really, why the hell are you all so damned freaked out? Oooooh! Someone fired a gun. Oooooooh.
FWIW my city’s gun club has trap shooting range with both a dirt road and a major highway in the same general direction as the shotguns are shot. The roads are simply too far away to be hit by shotgun loads.
No law, but convention wisdom and safe gun handeling. It seems clear to me that he had to have been fairly close to the crowd to have elicited that much reaction.
Not realy. There is a rifle and pistol range about a mile from where I walk near our city’s municipal golf course and kid’s fishing lake. And I still get a flinch when I hear them shoot for the first time (usually on weekends).
Not that it matters since it’s daylight hours in the rural countryside in TX. If the protestors don’t like it, then they could always move. 
Not really. The report of a shotgun carries much farther than the shot does, especially if the wind was blowing towards the protesters. I go to 2 different parks that are near trap ranges, and it is surprising (even to me) how loud the shooting is. One of the trap ranges is about half a mile away and the sound is pronounced. I’m sure it would be loud enough to concern some protesters.
Got any evidence that Mattlage: a) was drunk, or b) was “menacing?” Fact is, there have been almost zero incidents nationwide in the past dozen or so years of concealed carry permit holders exhibiting a “trigger-happy” attitude.
It was a shotgun. The maximum range of a shotgun is no more than about 75 yards. The maximum effective range of a shotgun is substantially less than that. There isn’t a trap or skeet range I’ve shot on in more than 25 years of shooting that had a backstop. Further, if the local cops didn’t arrest or cite Mattlage, it seems a reasonable assumption that what he was doing was not unsafe or illegal.
And the protestors crapping in a bucket is . . . what?
This post not meant as debate, simply done to help in understanding.
Binary, how could you have missed this?
Now, knowing Tank as well as the average Pitizen does, you can see that zuma has hit on two issues important to Tank. Guns and Texas. Whether intentional or not.
My post before that one attempted to highlight that it is stupid to categorise millions of individuals together based merely on location. But it still happens on the Dope all the time. I personaly don’t care fuck who’s doing it or who it affects, it’s stupid.
Disagree if you want, but don’t play ignorant.
The CNN video link says clearly that he shot “near” the protestors.
Question-not knowing much about guns, how dangerous is it, if at all, to fire into the air?
Look at the picture in This Link.
I would imagine he is standing next to the fence boardering the road occupied by the protesters. I would also take a guess that that is his house seen under his left arm in the pic.
He could stand with his back to the fence and shoot at his own house, be “near the protesters” and still hit nothing but dirt.
Listen, I am not some anti gun zealot. I currently own a Beretta Vertec, an SKS, an over/under Browning, and a Buckmark. And I shoot them. Alot. And I shoot with other people. Alot. I have been professionally trained and count as my shooting buddies a police officer and former MP marksman. We are vigilent on the amount of safe handeling and care we take when handeling these deadly tools.
It’s my opinion that this guy was reckless. And I think you are giving him a capital ‘B’ benefit of the doubt if you think that his blood was Keystone Light free.
In general, it is a no-no with firing rifles and pistols. And is routinely done with shotguns. They shoot birds in the air after all.
“Near” is a relative term…Exact yardage would be better, but then I guess the reporter would have to go on the guy’s property to measure it ACCURATELY, hence the reporter took a lazier route and had a choice between using the words “near” and “far”. Not really helpful, IMHO.
A shotgun? Mildly so. If you shot it straight up the pellets might fall back with enough energy to pierce the skin. But shooting “into the air” does not necessarily mean straight up, just that it was fired at nothing in particular with some degree of elevation. If he aimed it at 30 degrees up from level, towards the house in the pic above, it would not reach the house. Same with 45 degrees. The shot would just fall to the ground long before it hit anything.
That’s why this whole “It’s Texas, and HE SHOT A GUN!!!111” thing is just so ridiculous. Big deal.
I don’t think that he was anywhere near reckless in his behaviour from all the reports that I have read. I’m a shooter too (though not a Keystone Light drinker). I haven’t seen any evidence of him being intoxicated while firing his shotgun either.
Don’t get me started on that. These tent fucking cities that these idiot fucking douchbags set up give the rest of us that may happen to agree with them a terrible name. My favorite is when they set them up in what amounts to illegal squatting and then start to bitch because the city or whomever won’t provide sanitation facilities.