Westport man charged with illegally shooting goose
There's just layers upon layers of fail here. First off, WTF was this idiot thinking shooting a goddamn goose in an apartment complex? I honestly cannot even begin to comprehend the thought process that says, "hey, I live in an apartment. There's a lot of people in a small area here. I think I'll go illegally shoot some guns I don't have a permit to possess at a protected animal."WESTPORT — A Beaulieu Street man faces 18 felony counts after police charged him with illegally shooting a Canada goose on Monday.
James E. Dalton, 53, was arrested Monday afternoon after a neighbor reported that Dalton shot a goose, then dragged it into his home.
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Police then secured a search warrant for Dalton's apartment and found seven firearms, four shotguns and three rifles. None of the guns were secure, according to police, and Dalton did not have a license to possess them. In one room, under some newspapers, police found a dead goose that had been shot in the back.
Look, I'm sympathetic to the not having a permit part and the improper storage part. This is still America, and you shouldn't need a permit simply to own a firearm. In the vast majority of states, he committed no crime just by owning the guns. But he wasn't in the vast majority of states, he was in the Volksrepublik of Massachusetts: US Constitution, void where prohibited by MA law. The onus was on him to know the MA laws, and he failed at that.
But when you start shooting at passing wildlife, you lose all sympathy points as far as I'm concerned. This goes from, "simple mistake, he didn't realize how far gone MA was" to "he's an arrogant POS who thought the law didn't apply to him". Had it been a case where the landlord let someone in to do maintenance and they saw a firearm and dimed him out - and nothing more - I'd be a lot more likely to commiserate with the poor SOB who finds out the hard way that the Constitution doesn't apply in MA.
But jackasses like this douche poison the well for all law-abiding gun owners. For every hundred of us, every thousand even, that own and use our firearms responsibly, all it takes is one jackoff shooting at geese in his apartment complex to hand the media a gift-wrapped stereotypical gun owner. Ignorant of the law, indifferent to public safety, careless with dangerous weapons; this guy has every single negative connotation with which the antis love to tag gun owners. Hell, look at the damn mugshot. All the guy needs is a mullet to be more of a caricature...
I view guys like this in very much the same manner as the guys on sportbikes doing wheelies at 100 MPH on the highway. With one stupid, reckless move, they make every single person within line of sight hate all motorcyclists. As they weave in and out of traffic, missing bumpers by microns, all those cagers are looking on in disgust and transferring that one jerkweed's insouciance to all motorcyclists. They will look at me on my Harley as just another piece of biker trash, and hey, who cares if he's in the lane where I'm turning, he's just a piece of crap biker like the guy doing the wheelie.
A few bad apples spoil the bunch - there's a lot of truth to that pithy aphorism...
That is all.
Thanks to brad_in_ma for sending me this story, regardless of how high it may push my blood pressure...
11 comments:
You're absolutely right! I'm living this nightmare, my mother is the landlord, and she's pretty shaken up by the whole experience. What makes it worse, it wasn't a large apt. complex where it happened, it's a 2 family residence on the water in a small residential neighborhood. And he shot at the geese (approx. 12 of them)in the backyard! Literally 35ft from the house! My mother did not know he had any guns in the house. Needless to say my mother is looking into evicting him ASAP.
The daughter of the Landlord
This is one of the few times I find myself completely disagreeing with you, Jay.
I find killing a non-vermin animal (and I say there is some debate as to whether Canada Geese are vermin or not from individual to individual) for anything short of a meal or to protect yourself makes you an asshole. An asshole, not a criminal.
Everything else this guy did? He's a victim of government abusing it's power, and I'm not going to blame the victim even if it would be politically expedient to do so and even if he could have made choices such that he wouldn't be a victim.
I can see arguing that shooting a gun in an apartment complex is unsafe, but I don't think he did so in an unsafe manner.
And you know damned well your mugshot or mine would be just as damning on the front page.
Just my thoughts on the matter, with respect.
Anon,
Something tells me you won't have to worry too much about evicting him, as he'll be having a new address starting with "MCI" shortly.
RobertM,
There's a component you're missing here. This happened in Massachusetts, in violation of many of MA's gun laws. We, as law-abiding gun owners, take it upon ourselves to make certain that our actions are within the law.
And the fact remains that this imbecile violated many of the state's gun laws and also local ordinances. We may not like the rules, but we ignore them at our own peril.
Even in the most gun-friendly of states there are rules governing the discharge of firearms. From the comments above it's abundantly clear that he did not have the approval of his neighbors to be shooting - that's pretty much the death knell for recreational shooting anywhere; that he was taking potshots at moving targets is unconscionable.
Had he been in his own NH backyard plinking at cans and some busybody neighbor turned him in, I'd be the first person defending him. Fact is, though, that's not the case - he violated numerous MA gun laws in his little idiotic stunt, and will face the music accordingly.
I respect everybody's opinion and for the record the geese have been a major nuisance to my mother. However, he did fire at the geese in a very unsafe & irresponsible manner. He fired at the geese toward the open water of the pond. Thank godness there were no fishermen trolling the shore or kids on a canoe passing by at the time. Which is often the case.
The daughter of the Landlord
In almost all circumstances, I'm of the opinion that if there's a law that you don't agree with, you obey it until you succeed in getting it changed. The other alternative is to move the hell out of the area that has the laws you can't stand, and relocate to somewhere more in line with your mindset - like Texas :) Yet another reason for NOT making everything homogenous from State to State.
If we don't, there's largely no difference between that and the people that ignore drug laws, traffic laws, zoning laws, or whatever else there is that they personally don't agree with.
I did find this part hilarious, though:
In one room, under some newspapers, police found a dead goose that had been shot in the back.
Gall-danged bushwacking Goose backshooter! Should have faced him in a fair fight like a man! :)
Landlord's Daughter: My mother did not know he had any guns in the house.
That's just wrong. To keep a gun or three in an apartment in a complex is one thing, but to keep guns in a two-family, without telling the family you're renting from, strikes me as unethical.
Jay, this story may help you wash the foul taste out of your mouth. Citizens fighting back against the State's intrusions, and winning!
Goose population in Northern Virginia is dropping.
No, we're not shooting them in apartment ponds. Seems the coyote population is rising.
Cause, meet effect.
Other predators thinning the flocks include:
stray dogs. Bad economy always sees an increase in stray dogs.
third world immigrants. They may not always have papers but they are practical. Free food means more money to send home.
Paladin, my first reaction was the same as yours.
Jay, I hear ya. If the guy did, in fact, act in an unsafe manner while using a firearm he should be prosecuted accordingly. I don't have all the info regarding that so I can't make that call.
On the gun issue, though, it's not this guy who is wrong for breaking those laws, it's the state for passing and trying to enforce them. The laws are unethical, and arguably unconstitutional. All bad law does is breed contempt for the whole body of the law, good and bad. If I, as a citizen, am supposed to respect the law then my dignity as a human being requires that it be something I can respect...and right now the vast majority of the body of law we live under is not something that can be respected.
That said, I'm not going out breaking every law I can. Getting slammed in the pokey does me, or my efforts to change bad law, any good. I don't see this guy as some champion or even a good example of someone to rally behind. But I sure as hell couldn't bring myself to convict on any of the weapons charges (aside from those actually stemming from using one in an unsafe manner, if it could be proved).
Aye, Captain. We can't have the peasant scum poaching our lands with unregistered weapons. It'd give the wrong impression of his lordship. 'Tis for sure that this wog shall be whipped publically and placed into a prison of the realm for a goodly length of time.
And it shall be noted by all that any violations of the dictates of his lordship shall be dealt with in a punitive manner. Bow before your masters.
I don't care about the violations of the (unconstitutional) laws against possessing and carrying from an abstract POV - though they are the laws on the ground, as it were, and if you want to do civil disobedience you have to be ready for the consequencese. I'm not thrilled that he didn't let the owners know he had them - but that's not criminal or even particularly noteworthy unless it was against his lease.
Discharge of a firearm recklessly or in violation of hunting regulations is another kettle of fish, however. Particularly if he violated Rule 4 (target and backstop).
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