Man Shoots Lawnmower, Voids Warranty

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

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

--TwoDragons

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.

Is it illegal to shoot one's own lawnmower?

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

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

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

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...

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

disorderly conduct is such a vague charge

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

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.

Lawnmowers can be dangerous.

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"