There are times when it would be more appropriate to resort to one of those rechargeable 'air horns in a can', often sold in the automotive and boating sections of most big box stores. It would be cheaper than any deductible on the health insurance to airlift this wounded husband. Which raises another question about the article below -- it says the husband was airlifted by helicopter to Houston, but his injuries were not that serious. College Station has at least one medical center, a 150 bed facility that includes at least some surgical services and trauma care.......so why Houston by helicopter rather than College Station by regular ambulance if this was not that serious, compared to say a critical wound?
Local animal control should drop by to explain, if the cats are eating the left out food, and so are skunks, as in likely more than one, they're probably attracting other vermin....
The notion that some people have that they just must get out their gun to use lethal force has unfortunate consequences.
Frankly in this instance apparently it did not occur to the shooter that executing the goblin skunk would create an extremely unpleasant smell in the immediate vicinity, which by itself should have dissuaded her from taking arms against an annoying trouble.
And is it just me, or does it seem ill advised to be firing away from one's house in what is apparently a suburban housing division, or was this fool firing towards the porch when she missed, hitting her husband? Because either choice this seems another of those unsafe shootings where the gun handler forgot or ignored the fundamental rules of firearm safety. I know this is Texas, where the odd is normal, and intellect is not strictly required, but ........good grief, this is a .45, not a pea shooter or a BB gun. It's not just the risk of the skunk spray if she did kill it, or the risk to husband and family, or the neighbors, but good grief -- who shoots up their own deck like that? Thank goodness going through the back door reduced the momentum a bit before it hit her spouse.
But this kind of judgement does tend to point out that there are good reasons some of us are less than sanguine (pardon the pun) about when concealed carry permittees think it is appropriate to fire, all amusement aside.
From NBC.com:
Stinky shot: Texas woman aims for skunk, accidentally shoots husband
A Texas woman aiming for a pesky skunk that was feeding off cat food bowls outside her home wound up accidentally shooting her husband when the bullet ricocheted off the porch and struck him in the abdomen, a sheriff said.
The accident happened Sunday night at the family’s home in a subdivision south of College Station, Texas, Brazos County Sheriff Christopher Kirk said.
“Apparently they feed their cats out of bowls outside the back of the porch. They had a skunk that had been coming up there feeding. They decided they wanted to dispatch that skunk,” Kirk told NBC News on Tuesday.
The wife went out to retrieve her .45-caliber handgun, which was legally permitted, from her purse in an office in an attached garage. The husband stayed inside the home.
The wife shot at the skunk but missed. The bullet ricocheted off the porch, penetrated the back door of the home and struck her husband in the abdomen. The bullet did not damage any vital organs and wound up lodged in the hip area, the sheriff said.
The husband was airlifted to a hospital in Houston, where he was treated and released on Monday.
Kirk said investigators interviewed the husband and wife separately and their stories were consistent that the shooting was an unfortunate accident.
“She was very concerned about her husband and certainly having created that situation,” the sheriff said of the wife.
The couple’s names were not released. Kirk said they were in their early 50s.
The couple’s seven children were also in the home at the time but none witnessed the accident and none were hurt, the sheriff said.
Kirk said investigators will present their findings to the prosecutor to see if any laws were broken.
“Discharging a firearm in that situation was probably not good judgment,” Kirk said. “It certainly was reckless but I don’t know if anyone would be served if any charges were to be filed.”
Kirk said even the skunk cooperated with the investigation.
“He actually came back while our investigators were at the scene and tried to feed again off the cat bowls. We chased it off,” he said.
“Discharging a firearm in that situation was probably not good judgment,” Kirk said. “It certainly was reckless but I don’t know if anyone would be served if any charges were to be filed.”
ReplyDeleteWonder how they would have felt if she throwing knives--with a similar outcome.
Well, to be fair, democommie, if she were throwing knives and one went through a closed outside door (as contrasted with a more flimsy hollowcore interior door), I think they'd be very surprised, LOL.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah - how would they have responded if she threw a knife at the varmint (four legged and furry variety, we don't know the sterling qualities or lack of them of the husband)and hit hubby instead?
I keep wondering how well ventilated that deck is, and did she ever do this on other occasions?
It's also quite possible the 'returning' skunk was a different skunk all together -- but my! how tame to not be shy of the officers, etc. wandering around.
The other thought occurring to me was that if the skunks are that bold......hello, RABIES as a possibility? One of the indicators is atypical or unusual behavior, including behavior that is sometimes mistaken for being unusually bold or tame.
It's a big 'red flag' concern with rabid racoons before they get to the more typical neurological deficit behavior like staggering, and with being seen more openly as well in daytime as a nocturnal animal. Skunks aren't quite so nocturnal, more dusk and dawn critters. While rabies is one possibility, the other is that it's a hungry mom skunk...which could also mean a mate skunk around. We have a pair that is in our area. Thank goodness the dogs haven't gotten one of them, but I've encountered them (at a safe distance) a few times. Yelling and waving your arms, throwing a rock or a stick while they're still well away usually works to discourage them.
Maybe the reincarnated Annie Oakley, minus the sharpshooting ability, ought to invest in a good wrist rocket sling shot, or something similarly safer than the way she handles that .45.
It's plainly the skunk's fault. He MADE her shoot the husband. She was shooting at the skunk and can't be blamed if the bullet uses some fancy French word that means 'bounces off'and happens to hit him.
ReplyDeleteWe know bullets bouncing off things to hit people is the instigator's fault because that's what happened in the Empire State shooting and that was a perfectly legitimate and justified shooting, wasn't it?
Fool husband should have known better.