A bunch of kids were playing pranks in the neighbourhood. They were ringing people’s doorbells and then running away.
But Michael Bishop wasn’t having none of those shenanigans. When the kids rang his doorbell, he came out with his shotgun and shot 12 year old Jason Eberle in the back.
Eberle was seriously injured but is still alive. Bishop is facing charges of attempted murder.
I’ll bet that guy’s not invited to any more block parties.
Here’s a great comment:
203 “fans” of the poster. That really says a lot about the Huffington Post’s readership to me.
I’ll never get over how many morons think that the NRA condones and loves irresponsible, insane, dangerous gun behavior like what this moron did to that kid.
Sheesh. Ding dong ditchers might be annoying, but just showing up with the gun at the door would have been plenty to deter the kids from doing his house again. I hope he gets the book thrown at him, he was really trying to kill that kid. (I am not against guns, and I agree the NRA does not support psychos like this guy)
Huh. As much as I dislike kids and their harmless “pranks”, shooting them is going a bit far. OTOH, did Mr Bishop know it was kids on his front porch or was there something else going on in his life that caused him to arm himself?
I’m on the fence about this. I’d be willing to agree that he might have gone a little bit overboard but charging him seems a bit extreme.
He needs to be charged, convicted and sentenced because people need to know that you do not ever point a gun at anyone unless you’re willing to kill that person. Guns are not for intimidating kids.
Sure sounds to me like he was. He could have tried harder I guess…
(FTR, I haven’t read the article, this is just based on what’s been written here).
I agree with this except for one part. He may have been intending to kill the kid. What people need to understand is that you can’t kill someone for playing ding dong ditch. But IIRC this isn’t the first time we’ve had this problem. There was that guy a few years ago that held some kids at gun point that were walking through a cemetery and a few years before that someone else shot a kid (I could be mis-remembering this) for walking across his (possibly award winning) lawn. Some people just take things way to seriously. It’s alright to be mad at these kids. It’s alright to be REALLY mad at them. Hell, you can even yell and scream and wave your arms at them. But when you draw a weapon you start crossing lines. Now, like I said, I don’t know the whole story. But it would have to be a hell of a story to make this alright.
The same NRA that fought to keep fingerprint resistant grips available and to allow the importation of Chinese rifles that fired bursts without the trigger being pulled if someone jarred them? Yeah, those guys are big on responsibility and safety. :rolleyes:
On the other hand, I’ll bet the next time they decide to play this game, I’m guessing his doorbell will not be rung.
Here’s a question I’d like to know the answer to… were these kids tormenting this guy for days, weeks or months on end before this incident? Were the parents of this child aware of what their kid was doing and try to stop it? Did this guy’s wife die suddenly and he was just sitting there with his loaded shotgun?
Something doesn’t smell right. This is psychotic behavior… almost looking for an excuse to shoot someone. Shooting a kid in the back for ringing your doorbell and running away is harmless summer fun (the doorbell ringing, not the shooting). I suspect we will find out a piece of this story that isn’t available right now.
One thing is for sure. This behavior is unexceptable.
The only thing that saved that kid was distance. By the description of the wounds, the shot was scattered enough to collapse both lungs and cause a lot of head wounds/bleeding. If he had been any closer, there would have been one big hole through the kid’s chest rather than a bunch of small ones. That’s attempted murder in my book, which I hope gets thrown at the nut.
Whether the NRA would back this guy on the record or not, the guy is not that atypical of the kind of members they have.
A few years ago, here in Columbus, a guy shot at a carload of teenaged girls that were out on a “ghost hunting” expedition and drove up to his house because it looked spooky. He hit one of them in the head, and she suffered a traumatic brain injury (although survived). The guy ultimately got 19 years in prison for it. Here’s the Columbus Dispatch’s coverage on it: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/Barezinsky/rachel.html
Hopefully that’ll be because they don’t put doorbells on prison cells.
I remember a pizza delivery driver getting shot after going to the wrong house a few years ago. No charges were filed.
Eh, what should be done then? He tells the kid he’s sorry and we call it even?
I’d call threatening the kids with a gun going a little overboard. Actually firing at them? Lock him up.
Absolutely. The kid’s gonna live, ain’t he?
Yeah, the same NRA. If you’d actually read about them or maybe get to know some actual gun owning NRA people outside the fucking echo chamber called your own head that you live inside, instead of just rattling off Brady Campaign talking points, you would know that the NRA is a huge proponent of gun safety programs for both children and adults, and is instrumental in providing education about responsible gun use to people.
So as long as no one’s killed, simple apologies suffice for restitution in your world? He shot a kid for no legitimate reason.
I’ll give you that attempted murder might be a bit of an overreach, but assuredly this is an assault.