Man Shoots Lawnmower, Voids Warranty

1. the nag
   July 27th, 2008 at 7:35 am

   How many more lawnmowers have to die before the government enacts gun control?

2. TwoDragons
   July 27th, 2008 at 8:55 am

   There is a man with serious anger management issues...

   --TwoDragons

3. Adam Stanhope
   July 27th, 2008 at 9:05 am

   The mugshot photo makes this story.

   It kept on coming up in my various news feeds and RSS readers.

   "Why is this story so interesting?," I asked myself. Surely anyone growing up rurally and living amongst machines has felt the urge to shoot a misbehaving machine? That's not news.

   The mugshot makes the news, however.

4. Thomas
   July 27th, 2008 at 11:40 am

   Is it illegal to shoot one's own lawnmower?

5. Liapey
   July 27th, 2008 at 12:20 pm

   No, he actually got arrested for having illegal weapons. Him shooting the lawn mower is how they found them.

6. Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
   July 27th, 2008 at 12:51 pm

   "Is it illegal to shoot one’s own lawnmower?"

   I hope we're referring to the machine and not the person who pushes it.

7. Sasha
   July 27th, 2008 at 1:08 pm

   What happened here?

   Simple:

   Some poor schmuck is facing seven years in prison for a "crime" that imperiled or harmed no one but himself and his lawnmower.

   It's a case where the rights of the lawnmower trump the rights of the man to learn from his own mistakes.

   Sure, a sawed off shotgun might be more useful for a robbery or a crime of violence-but this guy never used it for either. In fact, it was more dangerous only for himself.

   Seven years? That's an incredibly long time. Seven days would be too long.

   So, a story where the only actual violence - one person using force to harm another - is commited by the state.

   A story told one million times in modern America...

8. Tim Giachetti
   July 27th, 2008 at 3:00 pm

   Ummm, Sasha, they found a butt load of illegal weapons. It wasn't just shooting the mower with a sawed off.

9. DOJ
   July 27th, 2008 at 4:16 pm

   disorderly conduct is such a vague charge

   Tim, does a shotgun and a stun gun really constitute a "butt load"?

10. Aaron Brown
    July 27th, 2008 at 9:31 pm

    Really, the issue was that the weapon he used was an UNREGISTERED short-barreled shotgun. SBSs are legal, as long as one registers it with the ATF and gets a $200 tax stamp for it. (This is assuming that one's state allows such weapons. They're legal nationally, just heavily controlled by the 1934 National Firearms Act.)

    The article says nothing about a prior record, but considering he wasn't charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, odds are that if he'd filed the paperwork and got the tax stamp, he'd have saved himself the felony charge.

11. pr
    July 27th, 2008 at 11:22 pm

    Lawnmowers can be dangerous.

12. el cad
    July 28th, 2008 at 11:53 am

    Reminds me on the Dead Kennedys song "A Child And His Lawnmower lyrics"

    "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 wayR
    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"

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